Drowning in horrific advice

They’re two words that can save taxpayers and investors a lot of money. They can save bureaucrats’ and bosses’ butts.

The words: risk management.

Read them and weep.

Wednesday’s story about the dog, Bear, who died when he was sucked underwater into a Hayden Lake drainage should have set off alarms. It didn’t. By the time the last newspapers were delivered, warning signs should have been posted near what some have called “a giant vacuum” that could just as easily kill a child as it did the 92-pound family pet. They weren’t.

Risk management.

A board member of the Dalton Gardens Irrigation District explained to the newspaper that ICRMP, the district’s insurer, advised against warning signs despite the drainage’s fearsome danger to man and beast.

“They indicated that by putting up caution signs we’d be exposing the district to even more risk should something happen,” the board member said. “I know that sounds counter-intuitive, but that’s what we were told. If we put up the signs, does it then become a question of did we do enough?”

Counter-intuitive? Sorry, it sounds a lot more like criminal, heartless, even crazy.

Please think about this: If posting a simple warning sign might save a life, why the hell wouldn’t you do it? Do you really mean to suggest that it’s more important to reduce the irrigation district’s (read: ICRMP’s) liability, the payout after someone drowns, than it is to prevent that person from drowning in the first place?

We understand that board members have fiduciary duties to the governmental agencies they represent, but those responsibilities should never, ever eclipse board members’ duties as members of the human race.

Post warning signs today.

And tell ICRMP to take a dip.