2.4. ERMUSR 05-10-2016 - Laserfiche WebLink

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In many cities, of course, those community-minded people who tend to get involved in city government are the same ones who tend to be willing to donate their time to a civic organization putting on a community festival. One problem is that it sometimes can get very difficult to determine on whose behalf the individual is acting at a particular time. One suggestion for dealing with this problem is for the city council simply to pass a resolution declaring the festival to be a city function and the organization putting it on to be city volunteers. The idea is that this is a way to bring the whole event under the city's liability coverage,but it's not that simple. From the standpoint of LMCIT coverage,the real question is whether this is, in fact, a city event or merely in the name. Certainly, a resolution declaring the council's intent would be one element in making that determination,but simply saying it doesn't make it so. Other factors to look at include: • How the decisions relating to the special event are actually made and by whom. • How and in whose name contracts are let. • How the funds are handled. If the money from the event is run through the city treasury and disbursed by city check with council approval, it looks more like a city operation. If another group has its own bank account in which it places and expends money, it doesn't really look like a city operation. Even with an event organized and run by a private group,the city will often have some sort of role. For example: • Thegroup may conduct some activities in a city park or use city streets. • City police may be involved in traffic or crowd control. • The city recreation department might be responsible for organizing some recreational activities as part of a festival organized by a community group. Where the city has this kind of involvement in a privately-sponsored event, the LMCIT coverage will apply to suits and claims against the city,the city's officers and employees, and the city's volunteers, if those claims arise out of acts on behalf of the city. LMCIT's Tenant User LMCIT would not provide any protection for the organization or the Liability Insurance Program (TULIP)provides access to individuals responsible for organizing a privately-sponsored event, even if low-cost liability coveragethose individuals or organizations were sued because of something the city for the city's"tenant users". did. If LMCIT ended up covering some city liability which arose out of some negligent action of the private group, LMCIT would very likely try to recover those damages from that group and/or the responsible individuals. 106