ROBERT PIERCE
• Leader & Times
Safety is a top priority in any workplace, and for Seward County leaders, the personal safety and health of each employee is of primary importance.
As part of its strategic planning, it is the Seward County Commission’s objective to provide a safe culture and one that will reduce the number of injuries and accidents to an absolute minimum, with a constant goal of zero accidents and injuries.
The belief is also that safety is the responsibility of every county employee, and with all of this in mind, commissioners unanimously approved a safety policy for the county at their March 17 meeting.
Prior to the vote, though, commissioners voiced concerns over the manual, and Commissioner Presephoni Fuller said she did not see a policy for handling hostage situations.
“How do you handle that?” she said. “People’s fuses are short, and we are open carry.”
Landfill Supervisor Brock Theiner, who headed up the safety policy project, said that situation would be handled similar to fire and tornado drills.
“It is going to be department specific, and we need to have a policy in that department due to the layout of land,” he said.
Commission Chairman Scott Carr said hostage situations would fall into a different category called an emergency action plan.
“The facility has to have a book,” he said.
Theiner agreed, saying a hostage situation is not a safety book issue.
“There should be one for situations like an active shooter or such,” he said.
Fuller asked if such policies were posted in each of the county’s buildings. Administrator April Warden said the Administration Building does have such policies posted.
“We have one hanging on our bulletin board up here and downstairs,” Warden said. “It’s not hung where members of the community would know what to do.”
Carr said such policy is also posted in the county’s Road and Bridge building. Warden said she would check with the Emergency Management department to see about getting policies posted in the rest of the buildings.
Warden added as part of annual training in the Human Resources department, HR Specialist Rosa Conley is implementing both harassment training and workplace violence, both of which are covered in the approved safety manual.
Warden too said she believes hostage situations are covered under the county’s emergency action plan, but she was unsure if those should be posted where community members could see them and know what to do in the event of such an emergency.
“I will work with Emergency Management on that,” she said.
Warden said current Emergency Management Director Greg Standard and incoming Emergency Management Director Tim Newman should update that policy for all county facilities.
Fuller, a former bank employee, said hostage situations were part of her training while working with banks.
“You have hostage situations where we tell our emploees to make sure you know what your children are wearing in case somebody says, ‘I kidnapped your child,’” she said. “They would know what they’re wearing and not not drive the same route all the time.”
Commissioner Tammy Sutherland-Abbott praised the work of the committee that helped make the manual possible.
“I would like to say and commend the group that has worked hard and put in all the time to ut this together,” she said.
Theiner said much of the manual was based on a template and tailored to Seward County.
“All the mentioned forms and documentation, it takes up a thumb drive, so all that came with it,” he said. “That is something we are not having to put toghether for ourselves. We got a template from Iron Horse Insurance, and our group sat down and made a punch list of questions.”
Theiner gave an example of a death happening at work, saying county officials had a given amount of time to report the incident to the federal Occupational Safety Hazards Administration.
“That was changed,” he said. “Iron Horse and Kansas Department of Labor is our flow for that type of incident. Anything that is specific to Seward County policy was taken straight from our policy and put in here word for word. Nothing was changed. Where it needed the drug and alcohol policy stuff, it was taken straight out and put into this.”
Carr said the intention is to the policy manual immediately implemented in Road and Bridge, the landfill and waste haul.
“Those postions have the most exposure,” he said.
Theiner said plans call for aggressive actions with those departments.
“We feel those are the most at risk departments,” he said. “We’re going to implement it and go aggressive with it.”
Commission Vice Chairman Steve Helm asked if Rural Fire could be added to the initial plan. Commissioner Todd Stanto said that department is covered by large quanties of federal safety regulations.
“There may be some things that would be superseded,” Stanton said.
“There’s probably some things like defensive driving should they go through confined space, ladder safety,” Carr said.
Warden said before the manual was submitted to commissioners, it was taken to department heads, all of whom read it and gave feedback.
“Brock then took that feedback,” she said. “Tim was part of that as well. They took it back to Iron Horse Insurance. They looked at it, helped us decide what changes needed to be made from the feedback. The department heads have seen this. They’ve looked through it.”
Warden added the department heads likewise understand not every chapter in the manual applies to them, but they do understand the ones that do.
“We’ll be working on how, where we’re going to store all of those documents’s they’re going to need that are referred to in the safety manual,” she said. “Should you adopt this, that is all ready to go. All of those forms have been created, and they’re ready to go.”
Warden said each employee has to sign off on the policy as well.
Fuller asked how department-specific safety topics would be implemented.
“They’re training on safety and not just have a manual there collecting dust?” she said.
Theiner said help with that will come from Iron Horse.
“Once we get this implemented, their trainer is going to come down free of charge and train trainers in each department,” he said. “We will be starting back up a safety committee and going that way with the safety topics.”
Theiner said safety consciousness has to start at the top with the county.
“It’s got to start with the department heads and flow through the management team,” he said. “It’s going to take a little bit to work it all in. There’s a lot in here.”
Fuller and Theiner said this is the county’s first official safety manual, and Fuller said employees will now be aware of safety’s high priority.
“I want all of our employees who work for the county to know how important safety is,” Fuller said.
Warden and Carr estimated less than half of Kansas counties have a safety policy.
“You guys are setting the bar,” Warden said.
Carr noted a huge reason why a safety manual was needed.
“Look at our workman’s comp, and there’s a reason we set the bar,” he said.
Helm said he would like followups about every six months on how implementation of safety policy is going.
“A safety policy is no better than if it’s not being followed,” he said. “That’s why I would like to see a report, and it could be all the time, every department, what their training was, what your topic was. Are the forms getting filled out, posted properly? Is the record keeping being followed?”
Fuller said much work was put into the manual, and it does not need to simply sit on a shelf collecting dust.
“It needs to expect what you expect,” she said. “We have a safety manual and want to make sure people are following and keeping the employees safe and their families safe.”
Theiner said monthly trainings are scheduled to take place on various topics from the manual.
“It’s going to take six months to a year to get this full implemented and get everything running smooth to where everybody’s accusomed to what forms they need, but we can come back with updates,” he said. “We could even do that in the strategic planning.”
