Local Government Risk Management Handbook

Abstract

This handbook originated in a series of risk management workshops developed by the authors in 1980 as part of a special project in local government technology innovation at the University of Tennessee's Municipal Technical Advisory Service. The workshops, funded in part by a grant from the National Science Foundation, were sufficiently well-received that the authors decided to expand workshop materials into a practical guide to assist local governments to establish and operate risk management programs. Initially, each of the three authors drafted specific chapters or sections for the Handbook. Dr. Dotterweich was responsible for writing sections on the concepts and principles of risk management, Dr. Sinclair for sections on insurance and departmental exposures and for many of the items in the Appendices, and Dr. Norris for sections on local government functions and departmental exposures. Dr. Norris also had overall responsibility for compiling and editing all sections into a single, hopefully coherent, manuscript. The manuscript was then reviewed by the authors with changes made where required. The result is a fully cooperative product which bears the imprimatur of all three authors, regardless of initial assignment.