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ELECTED OFFICIALS' SURETY BONDS L61—DEC 211993 The Board reviewed the following memo dated 12/17/93: DATE DECEMBER 17, 1993 TO BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSION FROM ALICE E. WHITE, EXECUTIVE AIDE RE ELECTED OFFICIALS' SURETY BONDS I have received a bill for $750 for Karl Zimmermann's surety bond that is due before January.' Apparently Farm Bureau wrote his bond for 4 years, but they bill yearly. This would make the total cost of his bond $3,000 for the 4 year period. I did not expect any payment for this year and did not include money in my budget for it. Upon researching this matter, I talked to Liz Forlani, and she said we have never paid this much for a bond before, nor have we ever paid yearly for a bond before. In fact, it appears that we have paid for some of the elected officials' bonds, and some of them have been paid for out of their budgets. Attached is a copy of the statutes relating to elected officials' bonds. It clearly states that the Mosquito Control District and the Hospital District pays for their bonds out of their districts, however, our records show that we have been paying for the Mosquito Control District bonds. Mr. Vitunac feels that Ch. 137 of the Florida Statutes indicates that each constitutional officer should pay for his/her own bond. I checked with the surrounding counties and found that in Martin County everyone pays the bonds from their own budgets; in St. Lucie County the bonds are paid -by the Finance/Budget Division out of an insurance fund that has been set up for that purpose; in Brevard County the Risk Management Division pays all of the bonds out of an insurance fund. Without exception, they felt that the premium on the bond was high. I checked with three local insurance companies, and they all quoted $750/year for a tax collector's bond. The Redish-Zeuch agency said the 4 years can be paid at one time, and then they give a 15%- discount on the second, third and fourth year, bringing the total to $2667 for 4 years. I need some direction from the Board of County Commissioners as to what procedure you would -like me to follow. If you want me to go ahead and pay the $750, then I will need $250 put into account 001-101-511-034.54. w �, If you feel that the Tax Collector should pay the bond out of his own budget, then he should be so directed. Also attached is a chart showing what we paid last year for the individual bonds. As you can see, there is ,quite a difference between the amounts paid. If the Board wants to continue paying all of' the bonds, then I would like to suggest that it be coordinated through Risk Management;• who can perhaps bid them through a single source and save the County some money. 43 BOOK 1 11a,L33 I