At their regular Tuesday meeting last week, the Greenville Public School District board of trustees voted unanimously to approve appraisal agreements with Keys Claims Consultants, LLC and a public adjuster agreement with Adam Posan.
GPSD’s assistant business manager, Kennith Harris briefed the board on the matter of the appraisals and adjustments made for the hailstorm insurance claims for damage to several GPSD buildings.
The contract for architectural services for the reroofing of the Manning building was approved and is being funded by Liberty Mutual at a cost of approximately $153,000.
Harris presented the board with construction agreements for repairs on additional buildings from damaged during the hailstorm insurance claims from November 2017 and March 2018.
Harris told the board the insurance company is pushing back.
“They offered us approximately $1.8 million for the rest of the buildings that were damaged and we actually received $1.9 million for Greenville High alone,” he informed the board. “So when we submitted a proof-of-loss statement back in December of 2019 for roughly $3.3 million the insurance company denied that, but they want to continue negotiating.”
The agreements the board was to consider provided the district bring in another appraiser to push the insurance company towards going into appraisal.
According to Harris, the insurance company is trying to avoid going into appraisal because it would mean bringing in a third party to assess damages and possibly paying out nearly $3.3 million to the district.
Harris said, “They (the appraisers) have come in and looked at the damage that has been done in the district and they think it’s far more than 3.3 million.”
He went on to explain the appraisers would be willing to invest their resources to come in and do testing on all of GPSD’s roofs and buildings that were damaged.
As part of the agreement, if the appraisers are not able recover anything beyond $1.8 million it will not cost the district.
Posan, who was the acting appraiser, was also present via teleconference to address the board and provide further insight about the appraisal matter.
“We started with Greenville High School and they (the insurance company) had offered around $500,000 to make repairs…we came in and we were able to increase that $500,000 to $1.5 million,” he said.
Posan continued, “We moved on to the other schools from there and we found another $1.8 million. So, all in all, what we’ve done is added about $3.3 million to the claim from where we started.”
Posan reiterated the insurance company’s intent to push back by noting it is seeking to disqualify him as the appraiser.
“I know that there is additional damage on the other school buildings,” he said. “The adjuster, Tom Counts (of Argo Group International), is pushing back, basically trying to disqualify me because of my involvement in the other claims and what we’ve done so far.”
Posan gave the board his recommendation of Keys Claims Consultants, LLC (KCC) as they are a nationally known and reputable company.
Posan said his proof of loss was $3.2 million and he believes with having Grandinetti assessing the buildings, there could be substantially more dollars.
The issue, however, is the insurance company’s aim to disqualify Posan as appraiser.
“We would basically renegotiate our deals with you where I would stand in place and continue guiding the ship if you will, making sure things went in the right direction, but we would be naming a new appraiser in Keys Claims to basically take my place,” he explained.
Appraiser and loss consultant Arthur Grandinetti of KCC discussed what services he would be providing and what he and Posan seek to accomplish with the board.
Posan and Grandinetti inspected the schools a few weeks prior to the GPSD’s last board meeting.
“Adam and I were able to walk several properties and get on some roofs and assess some of the damage the different schools have sustained,” he said. “Several of the roofs merit replacement and there’s damage to several facets of the roofs, including the equipment located on top of the roofs.”
Grandinetti said although they did not perform an “in-depth” inspection of the interiors while on the properties, based on the damage they did see on the roofs, it stands to reason there is significant interior water damage as well.
“When I arrived, the first building that I went to was Mr. Harris’ building and there was a power line lying next to the building. When I went inside the building, one of the first things that I noticed was a lot of interior water damage including water that had made its way into the electrical apparatus, that being the panel box located just outside of Mr. Harris’ office,” Grandinetti said.
“These are the kinds of things that insurance companies are hoping that we’re not going to find during our inspections,” he added.
Grandinetti further explained to the board the inspections he conducts will be in-depth where as they will walk each and every school, interior and exterior, and will address all of the items that are specifically attributable to the dates of loss.
“In other words, we’re not just going to walk through the schools and write up every thing we see that’s damaged, we’re going to go through the schools and we’re going to write down things that we feel our attributable to the dates of loss,” he said.
Grandinetti expressed to the board his eagerness to get started and assisting the district.
He highlighted having worked previously for the Holmes County School District and being successful in those endeavors.
Board trustee Emmanuel Edmond recalled discussing the matter of the appraisals and adjuster before and attempted to recollect why the board decided to table it.
Board attorney, Dorian Turner, addressed Edmond’s inquiry about the matter and explained at the time, contract negotiations were still being had.
As opposed to overwhelming the board with a number of agreements to consider and approve, Turner said she felt it would be better to hold off and bring it forth when the contract agreements could be included in all of the trustees’ packets in a timely manner.
Aside from the logistics and complexities to sift through in the agreements, Turner also informed the board there was a concern the insurance carrier would not pay for the complete reroofing of the Manning building, which was another factor to consider if it was added to the 2017 and 2018 claims.
However, Turner said, “The insurance carrier did step up and say that they would pay for the complete reroofing project of Manning, including enough money to cover the reroofing in the architectural contract.”
In reviewing all of the contracts, Turner said there were no major outstanding issues with the contracts.
“We currently have an agreement in place with Adam Posan’s company and the reason you see that agreement again is because originally, when Adam was going to be our stand alone insurance consultant, the original contract with him actually provides that we’re paying him a fee of 8%,” Turner said.
With the insurance company seeking to disqualify Posan and therefore the need to bring in a third party, Turner told the board Posan is actually reducing his fee from 8% to 5% because of the third party.
“Ultimately you have to have two appraisers — Adam as your adjuster consultant and Keys as the appraiser but rather than paying 8% and 8%, you’re going to pay 8% to Keys and 5% to Adam,” Turner said.
She re-iterated KCC would only be paid if they recover something for the district over and above what the insurance company was already agreeing to pay.
