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Crime & Safety

UPDATED: Mokena Fire Protection District Preparing to Sue Insurance Provider

Representative from Insurance broker responds to fire district's claims. The New Lenox Fire District is investigating its workers comp rates after leaving the same insurance provider last month.

Updated at 12:15 p.m.: A representative from McClure and Associates says the insurance broker is not responsible for the Mokena Fire Protection District's overpayment, but its parent company will refund the money once proper documentation is provided.

Dave Ciarrachi, a partner at McClure, said Thursday by phone that worker's compensation insurance is set by the state and multiplied by the institution's payroll. That rate went down during their second year of business with Mokena, yet the fire district continued to use the previous rate.

"They plugged in the wrong rate," Ciarrachi said.

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Ciarrachi noted that McClure isn't involved in the sale of premiums. The money is sent directly to its parent company, Dallas National Insurance, who is prepared to cut a check for $12,000 once the fire district provides the proper documentation, he said.

Moreover, McClure is a legal entity, Ciarrach said. The company's full name is B.D. McClure and Associates.

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Previously Reported: The Mokena Fire Protection District is preparing to file suit against one of its former insurance providers for misrepresentation, but whether the broker or parent insurance company ends up on the complaint remains unknown.

The same insurance provider, McClure and Associates Insurance, was abandoned last month by the New Lenox Fire Protection District because of a lack of information provided to the district. New Lenox Fire is now conducting an internal investigation to determine whether there was any misrepresentation by McClure, from Lisle.

About two years ago the Mokena fire district chose McClure to handle its worker’s compensation insurance, according to Mokena Fire Chief Ted Golden. Recently, an internal audit of the fire district’s finances determined that McClure had overcharged the fire district $12,000, Golden said.

It's common to pay more for workers compensation insurance, particularly when estimating over-time costs ahead of time, the fire chief noted, “but when we approached (McClure) and asked them to reimburse us for the overpayment, we never received anything back.”

The fire district has renewed coverage with another former insurance carrier earlier this year and turned the matter over to its attorney, Thomas Gilbert.

Gilbert told the fire district board of trustees on Tuesday that he’s preparing a lawsuit, though he isn’t sure yet who to sue. McClure is a broker for Dallas National Insurance Company, but McClure is not a corporation. Their corporate status was involuntarily dissolved more than ten years ago by the state, according to Gilbert.

“You have to sue a legal entity when you're going to sue somebody—either the individual or the corporation,” he said. “You can't sue McClure (and) Associates because that's just a name, not a legal entity.”

By phone on Wednesday, Gilbert said McClure gave the fire district the wrong form to compute its premium numbers when they first began service. He is expected to report back to the fire board as the matter progresses and have a complaint filed within the next six weeks.

New Lenox Fire Chief Jon Mead said the fire district is calculating its rate numbers and conducting a comprehensive investigation to see whether any of the same issues Mokena is facing have impacted New Lenox. In April, the fire district switched providers because it wasn't getting information it sought from McClure.

"They were less than forthcoming so we decided to switch," Mead said. "We could be in the same situation as Mokena, but we don't know that yet. We're doing some investigating on our end to see if we have any issues."

A message left at the McClure office was not returned on Wednesday.

New Lenox Patch Editor Michael Sewall contributed to this article.

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