“It’s going to be a real interesting year”

City council members approved a new property and liability insurance bid from Trident at the city council meeting last week on January 18th.

W.S Pharr & Co insurance agent Joe Walker and City Clerk Tacie Williams presented Mayor John Weaver and city council with property and liability information from five different insurance companies at the Wednesday night meeting. The council unanimously approved a bid from Trident carrying a 4.7 percent increase in premiums after Walker recommended to them that Trident is the best choice. Every year the city council approves a new property and insurance plan for any liability needs the city may have outside of workers compensation.

Walker explained to the council members that of the five different insurance companies he approached, the company with the best coverage plan was once again Trident. Last year, the city also approved Trident as its property and liability insurance provider.

Walker further explained to the Mayor and council that when Williams first asked him to try and pin point what kind of increase rate to expect, he told her his guess would be about 7 percent, but in actuality the increase rate turned out to be about 4.7 percent. Walker acknowledged that they did increase building values by 3 percent which would constitute part of the increase in premium.

“All and all by the time you figure out the new vehicles and the increases we are about flat what we were as far as rates are concerned with Trident, so based on that I would certainly recommend Trident.”

Walker also acknowledged that the next year would be real interesting with the city’s plans for a new courthouse which was estimated on Wednesday morning with $800,000,000 in insurance losses and $95,000,000 in lost income that the insurance companies will have to pay based on those percentages. Walker said,

“It’s going to be a real interesting year, but I feel really good with Trident. This is what they do.”

When asked by Mayor Weaver if she thought Trident was the way to go, Williams explained that they had a really good track record with Trident ever since Walker had switched them to Trident last year. Williams continued by saying that Walker had been a big asset and had done a really good job by getting them coverage in areas we didn’t even know we were exposed and several additional policies. Lastly, Williams said,

“If you look at the fact we are paying less for insurance than we were a few years ago, but are significantly covered more, I feel like we are in good shape as far as insurance goes.”