If you get into a scrape involving local government in North Dakota -- say a garbage truck side swipes your car, or you get hurt on park district property -- the organization you'd likely seek relief through is the North Dakota Insurance Reserve Fund. This is an entity created by local governments, and funded by local tax dollars, which acts essentially like an insurance company.

But the organization has come under fire, with critics saying NDIRF can be ruthless when it comes to claims filed by the public, even as the organization passes along millions in conferments to its members.

On this episode of Plain Talk, NDIRF CEO Keith Pic said the organization serves North Dakota by keeping costs down for local governments. "I think the important part here is that the coverages that we provide are unique to North Dakota," he said. "We can be responsive to North Dakota. We don't have the entire United States impacting the rates that would be charged for the risk that our political subdivisions have."

I recently wrote an article critical of NDIRF over the organization's handling of the Northwood school bus crash, where dozens of students were injured. That happened back in 2023, but the litigation around it is still lingering, with some families and legal representatives blaming NDIRF for bogging the process down.

"The easy thing for NDIRF in that situation would have been to just pay the $300,000 and just be done with it," Pic said, referring to the underinsured motorist coverage for the school district that is at issue. "But I think there would have been some major inequities that would happen or would have happened from that global settlement if we had participated in it. And here you had kids that were still treating well into 2025. Well, we don't know the extent of those injuries in 2024 when that global mediation happened."

Pic also argued that the millions in conferments the organization has made back to local governments have nothing to do with claims decisions. "There's no thought as to how is this going to affect our financials. Our claims adjusters are very much examining, what is the legal liability? What's a legal standard as to what can make up this claim and is it an allowable claim to be paid?" he said. "Ultimately, the claims decisions are made afterwards after the year's over. We have an actuarial analysis that's completed to make sure that our our liabilities are set. So I think it's a misconception that there's this incentive uh to make that happen."

Pic says he's an "open book" for critics. "I'm certainly hopeful that I can help resolve some of the issues that have come up. Every day is a day of improvement, little by little, and hopefully we can regain the public trust in what we do."

Also on this episode, we talk about political troll Brandon Prichard directing inquiries about his organizations campaign finance disclosures to Saul Goodman, and the reality of North Dakota's three political parties.

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