David Clovis: risky business David Clovis: risky business (August 30, 2002)

By Bill D'Agostino

To assess the city's risk of being sued, Risk Manager David Clovis has a number of factors to consider: how likely something bad is to happen, how bad it would be if it did happen, and how to possibly prevent it from happening.

But, he notes, there is no magic formula. He can't just put numbers into a computer and have it spit out an answer for whether the city should, say, expand a recreation service. Risk management, he said, "is more of an art than a science."

Although occasionally the risk of litigation is too high to go forward, Clovis said he tries to work with city departments and the city council to minimize that risk so that the city never ends up with its hands tied.

Most local municipalities have a risk manager. Initially, they did little more than buy insurance for the city and deal with workers' compensation claims.

That's still part of Clovis' job today, but only a piece of his responsibilities. "That's the paper pushing stuff that I do everyday," he said. "That's not what I consider the real fun part of my job."

The fun part is just what his title implies: managing risk. In other words, looking for ways to keep the city's employees safe from harm and to keep the public safe.

Growing up, Clovis wanted to be a cop, not a risk assessor. After graduating from college, he got his wish and became an officer in Fremont in 1979.

Five years and thousands of traffic tickets later, Clovis left the force to work for a trucking company after a wrist injury left him begrudgingly on desk-duty. He also wanted to spend more time with his family since his eldest child, a son, was born that same year.

Prior to coming to Mountain View five months ago, Clovis was the Risk Manager for the Central Contra Costa Sanitary District from 1998 to 2002. The biggest problems in that district were overflows that brought raw sewage into people's homes in the county. "Here (in Mountain View) I have a lot more different type of liabilities to deal with: police liability, fire liability, recreation," he said

There are three reasons to teach and promote safety within the city, according to Clovis: it keeps employees safe from harm, it's mandated by law, and it's fiscally responsible.

"It's okay for employees to work hard and be tired at night, but it's not okay to see people go home without arms and legs, without eyes," Clovis said. "All of those things happen. It's not the fun side of the job but it's the reality side of the job. I care about my people, I don't want to see them hurt."
E-mail Bill D'Agostino at bdagostino@mv-voice.com
One in a series of profiles of Mountain View people