$4M settlement to family of girl killed by tractor triggers broader review
Inspector General Joe Ferguson is auditing the city’s weed-cutting program — and the selection of a private contractor to perform the service has been put on hold — pending a review of “lessons learned” from a fatal accident that triggered a $4 million settlement, aldermen were told Monday.
Mayor Lori Lightfoot has lured Tamika Puckett, director of enterprise risk management for the city of Atlanta, to lead Chicago’s new Office of Risk Management. Exhibit “A” for Puckett’s efforts could be the weed-cutting program that triggered the $4 million settlement advanced by the City Council’s Finance Committee on Monday.
The settlement will compensate the family of Samyra Lee, a 7-year-old Englewood girl struck and killed in May 2016 by a tractor being driven by an employee of Truck Tire Sales, the city’s weed cutting contractor.
First Assistant Corporation Counsel Renai Rodney disclosed Monday the selection of a new weed-cutting contractor is on hold pending a review of the tragedy by the departments of Law and Streets and Sanitation.
Possibilities include higher insurance requirements, increased safety requirements and additional separation between City Hall and the private contractor.
Although Truck Tire Sales hired its own seasonal workers and used company-owned equipment, Rodney noted the city’s case against liability was weakened by the extraordinary control the city exercised over the contractor.
The company’s tractors — with “stickers bearing the city’s emblem” — were stored at city ward yards, where weed-cutters started and ended their shifts.
The city dictated what time the weed cutters took lunch and required them to maintain a “Weed-Cutting Daily Report.” If they did not follow those terms, they could be “sent home,” she said.
Ald. Michele Smith (43rd) was somewhat stunned to learn Truck Tire Sales’ tractor drivers were not required to have a commercial driver’s license, only a regular driver’s license.
“Wow,” she said.
Smith questioned whether the city was considering “changes in operating procedures of the department in order to, first of all, reduce liability or, in this case, whether these are operations that really should be outsourced, given the liability.”
Rodney noted city attorneys have been meeting with “managers from Streets and Sanitation to discuss the lessons that arose from this case with respect to the liability that attached to the city based on the terms of the contract.”
“The solicitation for bids for a new contract have been put on hold while that is ongoing. The [Office of Inspector General] is also conducting an audit of the weed-cutting program and they will be coordinating with the Law Department along with Streets and Sanitation,” she said.
Ald. Ray Lopez (15th) was troubled to learn the city’s contract with Truck Tire Sales, which expired March 31, has been extended until 2020 — pending the review — with no modifications and no increased insurance requirements beyond $1 million.
“We do a lot of weed-cutting in my ward. . . . We have thousands of lots getting cut. Opportunities for this kind of accident are [rampant]. The fact that this is one of the few that we’ve had is remarkable,” Lopez said.
“Once it happens, you have to do your best to make sure it never happens again and, if it does, that we are protecting our city.”