03/08/2004 Meeting Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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based on their familiarity with Larry Barrett. There is no doubt that Larry is well-liked and has a --memorable track record from past experience of servicing accounts and pursuing claims in a personal and admirable manner. This was not being questioned. We were, however, wondering if Ted Kravec could offer at least the same level of service, professionalism, knowledge and creative planning with the added benefits of a broader scope of negotiation across communities and public entities and experience from the "other side" having worked for the Insurance Caniers. I assured each employee that I would do my best effort at collecting accurate information and disseminating it to all memebers of Council prior to a final vote. My first call was to ted Kravec only to find that he was out of town on business. I decided to call Jay Hutchison our property & casualty agent from Wichert who recommended Ted. Wichert is 70 year-old company specializing in P& C, property & casualty insurance. Wichert, a company with impeccable credentials and expertise, "provides Property & Liability Insurance services to over 150 public entities, including a long tertn relationship with Mayfield Village." Lance & Company is a Medina based insurance company specializing in employee benefits, which was acquired by Wichert in the fall of 2002. Ted Kravec is a former owner-operator of Lance & Co. with over 10 years at the Company level and 7 years at Lance with a great deal of public entity experience. Wichert also owns the Trimmer Insurance Agency, a 175 year-old insurance company in Lancaster Ohio specializing in health insurance and employee benefits, and E.D. Stone a 70 year-old health insurance agency located in the Green Meadows Corporate Park at the north-end of Columbus near Polaris. The Stone Agency services approximatly 400 villages, townships and municipality. According to Jay Hutchison Ted was at least 50% of the reason that they acquired Lance, he is young, aggressive, extremely knowledgable and creative in his field of expertise - healthcare benefits. m? ? I spoke at length with Jay Hutchinson who sent me a profile on the company and a partial client list while Ted's assistant, Connie McGuire sent me another list of some of Ted's clients on the Healthcare side.,I;called several names on the lists and heard glowing reports about excellent and long-term relationships and great service and support. Per our conversation I spoke to several municipalities, a school system and two businesses. Spoke to NIr. Shah, Finance Director of Pepper Pike; Treasurer of Moreland Hills; Current Trustee on the Board of RITA; and recent past president of NEO Finance Officers Assn. That includes Gates Mills, Independence and several other communities that are conventionally insured by Wichert. Also called Bob Tribby, Finance Director for Mayfield Heights but also he is the current President of NORMA = Northern Ohio Risk Management Assn., primarily eastern suburbs along I-271, is a P& C Property & Casualty self-insurance group formed un ORC 2744, the Ohio Political Subdivision Tort Liability Statute and this group is managed by Wichert. This is not a pitch for NORMA, it is somewhat CLOSED group and does not actively solicite membership due to the nature of insurance claim consortiums. Bob Tribby had great things to say about Ted and also NORMA and invited us to join at any time. Also, it turns out that Vince Feudo is Counsel for the NORMA Group and he too knows Ted Kravec and had great things to say. Jay Hutchison said that up until now, forming any Health Benefit consortia typicallq presented problems - 2 primary reasons: 1) the incredible diversity in the number of claims filed and type of claims filed and general usage trends from one community to the next; and 2) union or employee contractual obligations that difler between the communities.