Risk Management Procedures: Background & Rationale
What's on this Page
- Berthing Leases: Commercial Fishing Vessels
- Airport: Month-to-Month Tenants
- Evidence of Primary & Non-contributory Coverage for Additional Insured Status
- County Requirements
- Rationale
- Coverage Counsel’s Analysis: Statute & Case Law
- Construction Projects: Builders Risk
Berthing Leases: Commercial Fishing Vessels (PDF: 68 kB)
Airport: Month-to-Month Tenants (PDF: 65 kB)
Evidence of Primary & Non-contributory Coverage for Additional Insured Status
County Requirements
- We require additional insured status on GL and pollution liability policies.
- Additional insured endorsements must cover the County on a primary and non-contributory basis.
- Documentation of primary and non-contributory coverage is not required for most agreements.
- Documentation of primary and non-contributory coverage is required for certain agreements:
- Construction contracts: Template 1 & Template 2.
- Environmental contractors: Template 10.
- Any contract involving the Airport or the Marinas.
- Pollution liability, regardless of the Template.
Rationale
Because the County is an additional insured on the vendor’s policy, we want that policy to cover the County before any contribution from our CSAC protection or our self-insured retention.
California Government Code Section 990.8 states that a public agency’s self-insurance and/or participation in a risk sharing pool (i.e. CSAC) does not qualify as insurance. This position is supported by case law as well. Although we are protected through CSAC, legally, we have no “insurance”. The GL coverage provided to the County as an additional insured on the policy of a consultant (contractor, tenant, licensee, etc.) is the only GL “insurance” we have. By default it is primary and non-contributory.
Although we require primary/non-contributory status for all additional insured coverage, we do not insist on documentation for this because the vendor’s policy is primary and non-contributory by default. This reduces significantly the insurance-related workload for contract management staff without increasing the County’s risk.
Exceptions: The County does purchase commercial insurance policies for the airport, marinas and for pollution liability. Therefore, documentation of primary and non-contributory coverage is required. We also require that documentation for high risk contracts: construction and environmental contractors.