Bill settles insurance woes threatening the Oklahoma County Jail Trust

Finding insurance coverage for the Oklahoma County Jail Trust has proven near impossible, but a bill recently signed by Gov. Kevin Stitt should remove that hurdle.

House Bill 2668, which did not receive much fanfare when it was pushed through the Legislature at the end of session, clarifies existing law to explicitly allow counties with over 600,000 residents and a trust running the county jail to pay for judgments from lawsuits against the jail through local property tax rolls.

This is currently how the county funds large judgments, but there was disagreement in the county over whether that practice could continue when the Oklahoma County Jail Trust takes over management of the jail from the sheriff’s office on July 1, said Rep. Mark Lepak, R-Claremore.

If the trust could not levy judgments against the tax rolls, the other option was to find and fund an expensive liability insurance plan upfront, which the trust had been trying to do for months with no success.

Without insurance, running the jail would not have been a reality for the trust.

Lepak said he was approached by county officials in March and asked if he would amend a separate bill that “wasn’t going anywhere” to instead deal with jail judgments so the issue could be settled.

“It comes down to the interpretation of the law by the local officials,” Lepak said. “In some jurisdictions, they believe the law is sufficient to allow for the jail trust to do this and, apparently in Oklahoma County, there was disagreement. So I offered the bill to clarify.”

The bill passed both the House and the Senate almost unanimously.

County Commissioners will still have to formally approve any requests for judgments to be put against the tax rolls.

Acquiring insurance and paying massive costs has long been a concern for the jail trust. At a recent trust meeting, jail administrator Greg Williams said insurance companies had not even been sending over quotes.

“This law will enable the county to better serve the taxpayers’ interests in dealing with liability issues,” said County Commissioner Kevin Calvey, who sits on the jail trust and led the lobbying effort for the bill.

County officials crafted the language with backing from the Oklahoma City Chamber of Commerce.

The jail trust will be almost exclusively funded by the county — the roughly $32 million currently used by the sheriff’s office to run the jail is earmarked for the trust next year. So whether it was insurance or tax-roll payments, the county would be footing the bill. Trust Chairwoman Tricia Everest said she sees the move as a way to cut costs for taxpayers overall because there won't be large, recurring insurance costs, along with the belief that having a trained corrections professional running the jail will result in less lawsuit.

“It will ultimately cost the county far less,” Everest said, adding that the trust did “due diligence” without actually having an active role in lobbying for the legislation.

County Commissioner Carrie Blumert said she wasn’t involved in lobbying either but agreed that having a “professionally hired jail administrator who reports to a board” would result in fewer lawsuits against the jail.

“From my initial opinion, I think the bill is fine,” Blumert said. “For the taxpayer, this bill really doesn’t change anything for them. It kind of keeps the status quo in the sense of paying out judgments.”

Some have frustrations over what they said was a “sneaky” process that most weren’t aware was happening in the Legislature, as well as feeling like the idea of a trust had been sold, in part, by saying there would be less liability for the county when it came to lawsuits.

“We were under the impression and were told that the trust would remain totally separate and there would be less liability,” said Larry Grant, president of the Oklahoma County Sheriff’s Office FOP. “That was a big selling point… It baffles me that we’re finding out about it after it is already a law.”

Grant said he didn’t think it could be predicted that there would be fewer lawsuits and subsequent judgments against the county jail just because it changed management.

And for officials, a few process questions still remain.

At the county’s Detention Center Transition Committee meeting Tuesday, a committee member asked what would happen if commissioners ever declined a request from the trust to levy a judgment against the tax rolls.

There wasn’t an immediate answer, but committee chairman and County Clerk David Hooten said he thought the change would be helpful for the trust.

The trust is still on the hunt for other types of insurance before July 1, but without the need for a vast liability policy, that should move more quickly and be cheaper, Everest said.