To: James Avery, Governmental Operations Committee
From: Prosecutor David Leyton
title
RE: Annual SAAGs Self-Funding Insurance Resolution
recommendation
BOARD ACTION REQUESTED:
Resolution approving “self-funding” for liability and worker’s compensation insurance for attorneys working as Special Assistant Attorney Generals (SAAGs) in the Genesee County Prosecutor’s Office for Fiscal Year 2024.
BACKGROUND:
For the past ten years, the Prosecutor's Office has been the beneficiary of the Michigan Attorney General's Office "Special Assistant Attorneys General" (SAAG) program which was established under the State of Michigan's Public Safety Initiative (a.k.a. the Distressed Cities Initiative). This has provided us at any given time with up to four SAAGs each year who work in our office performing the work of assistant prosecutors (APAs). SAAGs do everything an APA does from warrant reviews to felony jury trials. It has been an invaluable program to the Prosecutor’s Office and has saved the County millions of dollars over the years.
DISCUSSION:
Under this program, the SAAGs are authorized to serve as Assistant Prosecutors in Genesee County. SAAGs are selected, hired, and supervised by the Genesee County Prosecutor’s Office and they provide temporary, year-to-year non-supplanting services to our office. Salaries are funded entirely by the AG’s budget but the agreement with the AG’s Office does not include workers comp and liability insurance. In return for the invaluable and immensely beneficial cost savings the SAAG program provides to our office and the County budget, the Board has agreed in the past to "self-insure" the SAAGs in the performance of their work; this includes both workers comp and liability claims. Please note that as of the drafting of this request, a formal SAAG agreement for FY2024 has not be received from the AG’s office but, we have been informed that the program remains in the AG’s FY2024 budget and will be forthcoming. Since our SAAGs will continue working under the FY2023 agreement past September 30th with or without a new agreement formally in place, we are simply making sure at this point that there is no lapse in the County’s Board’s approval of self-funding for workers comp and liability for our active SAAGs.
IMPACT ON HUMAN RESOURCES:
None.
IMPACT ON BUDGET:
None.
IMPACT ON FACILITIES:
None.
IMPACT ON TECHNOLOGY:
None.
IMPACT ON INDIRECT COSTS:
There has never been a workers comp or liability claim for the SAAG program in all these years and we have no reason to believe there will be any in the future.
IMPACT ON OTHER COUNTY DEPARTMENTS OR OUTSIDE AGENCIES:
None.
resolution
TO THE HONORABLE CHAIRPERSON AND MEMBERS OF THE GENESEE COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS, GENESEE COUNTY, MICHIGAN
LADIES AND GENTLEMEN:
BE IT RESOLVED, that this Board of County Commissioners of Genesee County, Michigan, approves the request by the Genesee County Prosecutor to self-insure any claims that might arise from the work performed by Special Assistant Attorneys General (SAAGs) were there to be a Workers Compensation issue or liability issue while said SAAGs are working under an agreement between the Prosecutor’s Office and the Michigan Attorney General’s Office for Fiscal Year 2024, with no County appropriation required (a copy of the memorandum request being on file with the official records of the September 6, 2023 meeting of the Governmental Operations Committee of this Board).