Buffalo Grove teams with three suburbs to save on liability insurance

Buffalo Grove is teaming up with Elk Grove Village, Hoffman Estates and Highland Park in a liability insurance consortium officials say could save the village as much as $150,000 a year.

Coverage through the Suburban Liability Insurance Pool (SLIP) will cost the village $214,000 to $314,000 annually, compared to the $364,000 the village has been paying to self-insure, Finance Director Scott Anderson said in a memo.

The village has self-insured since withdrawing in 2016 from the Intergovernmental Risk Management Agency (IRMA), a municipal insurance collective it helped found in the 1970s. Village President Beverly Sussman cast a tiebreaking vote to sever ties two years ago.

Trustee Jeffrey Berman commended Bragg and village staff for their efforts to save village money.

"The public may not be aware of the tremendous amount of work that has gone into this project. The proof is in the pudding, as it were," he said.

"We are saving a considerable amount of money for our taxpayers and we are gaining a lot of flexibility in the choice of defense counsel and in other areas as well," Trustee Joanne Johnson added.