Road and Bridge claims are a significant exposure for KCAMP. In 2006, a typical year, R&B claims account for 21% of the incurred losses for that year. $700,000 for one department in one year is a significant risk. The only other County department with more losses is the County Sheriff’s Department with 28% of the losses.

The intent of offering this information to you is not to belittle the R&B department. Obviously the business of maintaining county roads and bridges is inherently a dangerous activity, and one that generates a large amount of civil liability issues as well.

For several years KCAMP has been operating a Law Enforcement Tuition Reimbursement Program as a benefit to our members. With this program, we have been able to provide dollars to help off-set the cost of training for law enforcement professionals and get more training to more officers. We believe that the more educated our officers are, the fewer claims we will have.

We are now ready to initiate the same kind of program for our R&B departments. The Road Scholar program, sponsored by KAC and LTAP, will now be eligible for the reimbursement program through KCAMP. Each KCAMP member has a specific amount of money available for reimbursement for 2007. The amount that is available is equal to your 2007 premium X .004. If you are unaware of your 2007 premium feel free to contact us for that information.

We will reimburse $50/person/class up to the limit that you have available for that year. Checks will be made payable to the County. To receive reimbursement, you will need to send us some sort of proof of completion/attendance for each course and student. We will apply this retroactively to March 1st, so any courses you have completed since March 1st, 2007 are open for reimbursement.

Q: In our County we have several uncontrolled intersections where there are trees, fences and the like that obstruct the view of vehicles entering the intersection at 90-degree angles to each other. What authority does the County have, if any, to act?

A: The County does have statutory authority to act to correct this situation. Additionally, the County may be civilly liable for damages and/or injuries from an accident where the County was aware that there were visibility issues with the intersection and failed to take correctiveaction.

K.S.A 8-2011 states:

(a) It shall be the duty of the owner of real property to remove from such property any tree, plant, shrub or other obstruction, or part thereof, which, by obstructing the view of any driver, constitutes a traffic hazard.

(b) When the secretary of transportation or any local authority determines upon the basis of an engineering and traffic investigation that such a traffic hazard exists, the secretary or such

local authority shall notify the owner and order that the hazard be removed within ten (10) days.

(c) The failure of the owner to remove such traffic hazard within ten (10) days shall constitute an offense punishable by a penalty of ten dollars ($10) and every day said owner shall fail to remove it shall be a separate and distinct offense.

Part 1 –Skimming the Surface of a Deep Pond

For the past 15 years, technology and our use of it has increased on a monumental scale. What once took hours and days, now takes little more than the click of a mouse. Now more than ever, public entities rely on computers to conduct business. Paper is going by the wayside in favor of creating and maintaining things electronically.

For decades, the discovery process in litigation was viewed has having 3 main components, (1) depositions; (2) answers to interrogatories; (3) the inspection of documents. For many years the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure recognized that “data compilations” are in fact discoverable, but not until now has such has a set of amendments truly addressed our ever expanding technology.

In December, 2006 amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure went into effect addressing many issues associated with the retrieval, preservation and production of information stored in digital form, which the new rules term “Electronically Stored Information” (ESI). This term generally refers to information stored, created, communicated, and used in digital form.

The new amendments addressed five broad areas (1) the obligation of parties to a lawsuit to meet and confer about e-discovery early in the litigation process; (2) the discovery of ESI that is not reasonably accessible, and the burden of the cost; (3) Privilege review of information; (4) the form of ESI production; and (5) sanctions.

It is notable that these new rules only apply in Federal Court, however it is only a matter of time before the states follow suit and enact similar laws.

Obviously this is a pretty big topic to address and in future issues I will pick apart and address many of the issues we will all be facing in this new digital age. Notably I will address what you as a county must watch out for, and be prepared to deal with as these new rules take shape.

If you have any questions you can always contact myself at the KCAMP office. And as always Be Safe Out There.

The court rules that a police officer’s attempt to terminate a dangerous high-speed car chase that threatens the lives of innocent bystanders does not violate the Fourth Amendment, even when it places the fleeing motorist at risk of serious injury or death.

Police Cannot Use the Consent of a Co-Occupant to Make Entry in Order to Search for Evidence to be used Against the OpposingOccupant who Is Present and Objects tothe Entry.