Located in Central California, the City of Visalia has a population of 140,000, and offers a small town feel with big City amenities. Visalia has some of the most affordable housing in California, typical commute times under 20 minutes, and abundant recreational opportunities. Experience Visalia: Enhance Your Life. The City of Visalia’s Human Resources and Risk Management Division oversees the functions of risk management, insurance, workers compensation, employee benefits, safety, payroll, and personnel administration. The dedicated staff of ten work collaboratively and continually strive to provide exceptional service to the public and City staff of 700 full-time employees.

THE OPPORTUNITY

The Risk Manager oversees the City’s risk and insurance operations including insured and self-insured programs.
• Workers’ compensation internal oversight in partnership with TPA
• Liability and subrogation management and coordination with litigation attorneys
• Health benefit plan administration
• Administration of employee leaves
• Contract review and risk transfer
• Safety and illness prevention program
As part of the division leadership team, is responsible for determining self-insurance levels and purchasing excess coverage; serving as the City’s representative on the JPA managing general and liability exposures; negotiating and recommending settlement or denial of tort claims; analyzing contracts and risk transfer issues and establishing coverage necessary; recovering loss through subrogation; investigating workers’ compensation claims and injury report to assure compliance with laws; reviewing and approving contracts and contract indemnification provisions; processing disability retirements; negotiating medical, disability, and health benefit coverage; and coordinating city-wide health benefits committee.

Upcoming challenges facing the division relate to evaluating methods of claims processing; reviewing and evaluating existing vendor contracts; interpretation and implementation of regulatory changes, and cost of benefits.

IDEAL CANDIDATE

Significant professional level public entity risk management experience is critical. In-depth knowledge and oversight of functional areas such as workers’ compensation, liability and subrogation claims, employee leave management, and/or benefits administration is a must. A bachelor’s degree in a related field is highly desirable. Along with technical expertise, the ideal candidate will have excellent communication skills, be diplomatic, customer focused, and work collaboratively and respectfully with a wide variety of stakeholders throughout the organization to assist and proactively identify and address potential risks and improve the health of the organization. The next Risk Manager must have the ability to independently and effectively manage multiple program areas; analyze and evaluate processes for improvement; effectively supervise staff; remain current on and ensure compliance with relevant laws, rules, and regulations.