Covid-19 Indemnification Order Approved

The Board of Alders unanimously approved an order granting the mayor permission to enter into indemnification agreements with organizations interested in helping the city during the Covid-19 pandemic, thereby shifting the legal and financial liability for city actions as part of those agreements from the partner and back onto the city.

Local legislators approved that order Thursday night during a full board meeting held entirely online via the Zoom tele-conferencing app.

The alders moved up the meeting from its originally scheduled date of next Monday so as to expedite the board’s vote on the indemnification order.

They also voted unanimously in support of several other coronavirus-related resolutions, including ones that threw their rhetorical support behind first responders, medical professionals, and low-income workers, urged collaboration at all levels of society to support those most impacted by the pandemic-induced economic crisis, and promoted social distancing as an effective means of mitigating the spread of the virus.

City Corporation Counsel Patricia King and Assistant Corporation Counsel Kevin Casini detailed the rationale behind the indemnification order and fielded questions from alders on the City Services and Environmental Policy (CSEP) committee during a separate Zoom public meeting that took place online two hours before the full board voted in support.

Just as Mayor Justin Elicker said during his daily coronavirus-related press briefing Wednesday, King told the alders that the indemnification order arose from city negotiations with the University of New Haven.

That private West Haven-based university’s has offered to house 150 to 170 city police officers, firefighters, and other local emergency responders who need a place to stay in order to protect themselves and their families during the public health crisis.

The indemnification order allows the city to enter into coronavirus-related agreements that would require the city to compensate another party, such as UNH, for losses or damages arising from the city’s actions under the agreement.

So if a city employee caused a fire or sustained an injury while staying at property operated by a partner organization, the city, and not the partner, would be on the hook for the legal and financial fallout.

The order has an expiration date of Sept. 27 unless the Board of Alders extends the date or ends it sooner, and it requires the mayor to get sign-off from aldermanic leadership before finalizing any such indemnification agreements.

“This situation has rapidly developed,” King said.

When her office first drafted this proposed order, the city was thinking primarily about finding places for police officers and firefighters to stay during the pandemic. Now, she said, the city anticipates potentially needing to strike similar agreements to help house other first responders, healthcare workers, and homeless individuals during this public health crisis.

“It’s really hard to anticipate the scope of where this could go, given the current environment.”

Casini (pictured) added that the city will likely not have to indemnify UNH for this particular agreement currently in the works between the city and the West Haven university.

That’s because UNH will not be charging the city to provide housing for New Haven’s first responders. And according to Connecticut Generate Statutes Sec. 28 – 21, any private entity that offers shelter to the government for free during a declared state of emergency shall not be civilly liable for losses and damages arising from such an action.

“If something happened at UNH and someone there sued UNH or the city,” Casini said, the state attorney general would take up the defense and, per state statute, the city cannot be held liable.

Therefore, the indemnification order passed by the alders Monday night will most likely not need to be invoked by the mayor for this particular deal with UNH, but allows for the mayor to enter into other similar agreements with other organizations where civil liability might not be covered by the state.

Downtown Alder Abby Roth (pictured) asked, if a partner organization did invoke the indemnification clause and if the city did have to step in and take on legal and financial liability, would Corporation Counsel attorneys be the ones actually handling such a legal case in court?

“The expectation is that we would,” King said. If the city would be on the hook for potential financial compensation in such a scenario, she said, the city would want to have its own attorneys working on the case.

Would the city’s self-insurance cover any potential pay-outs arising from such a scenario? Roth continued.

“I don’t believe there’s any insurance policy in place that would cover this,” King said. ​“We have insurance for certain types of cases. I don’t believe any of these would fall under” those policies already held by the city.

And is the city considering extending its insurance coverage during this public health crisis? asked Hill Alder Kampton Singh (pictured).

“We have not looked at extending any insurance coverage” so far, King said, because the UNH agreement will likely leave the state, not the city, on the hook for any legal liability. However, she continued, ​“we could look into that given all the uncertainty around Covid-19.”

West Rock/West Hills Alder Honda Smith (pictured) asked if anyone from the city has done a walk-through of the proposed UNH shelter site yet. Has anyone documented its current conditions?

“There has already been a complete study,” King replied. She said the city’s emergency operations team has visited, as have the police chief, the fire chief, and officials from UNH. ​“The facility has been fully inspected.”

And what happens if this pandemic continues through the order’s end date of Sept. 27? asked East Rock Alder and CSEP Chair Anna Festa (pictured). What if the city still needs a place for first responders to stay and UNH students need to come back to campus?

“None of us knows how long this is going to last,” King said. If the pandemic is over before school resumes, she said, then city first responders will move out before students return.

“If the pandemic isn’t over, I’m sure the students won’t be back and it will be another semester of online learning,” she continued.

“We all recognize that we’re in a fluid situation,” King said. ​“The end dates in these types of agreements are flexible.”