Risk Management Claims

The City of Bend is here to help residents and City employees navigate the claims process with ease and clarity. Whether you have experienced property damage involving City operations, are a City employee who has been injured on the job, or are seeking unemployment benefits after working for the City, we offer clear guidance and helpful resources. Filing a claim is straightforward—just complete a form and include any necessary documents. Our team is committed to reviewing each claim carefully and fairly, and we’re always available to answer your questions and provide support throughout the process.

If you have damage or an injury you believe the City may be responsible for the first step is to file an incident report form with the City within the time allowed by ORS Chapter 30. The City aims to make the claims process as straightforward as possible. 

What Happens After You File

Once your claim is received, it will be sent to the City’s insurance carrier, CityCounty Insurance Services (CIS), who will open and investigate the claim. CIS will contact you to obtain your statement and will work with the City to gather necessary details. CIS will investigate and determine if the City was negligent and therefore liable for your damages.

For example, if you hit a pothole and the City had no prior knowledge of the pothole and therefore no opportunity to repair the pothole, the City is not negligent and not liable for your damages. If the City had prior knowledge and repaired the pothole within its standard operating procedure (typically within 48-96 hours), even though they had knowledge the City would not be considered negligent because it acted in a timely fashion to repair the pothole. If the City had prior knowledge and failed to repair the pothole, then the City would be considered negligent and therefore liable for your damages and CIS would issue payment to you or the repair facility for the repair costs.

Please note that you have a duty to mitigate your damages regardless of the type of claim you may have. There is no guarantee that the City will be found liable. 

The City of Bend is committed to making sure every City employee has a safe place to work. We regularly check our workplaces and take steps to prevent accidents before they happen. But if someone does get hurt on the job, Workers’ Compensation is available to help. The goal is to support injured employees so they can heal and return to work as soon as it’s safe to do so.

Our Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) team is here to help with claims, answer questions, and provide support to City employees in all departments. Claims are handled through SAIF, our workers’ compensation insurance provider.

If your job with the City of Bend ends, you may be able to get help through Unemployment Insurance. The City helps fund this program through the State of Oregon, which provides partial income support while you look for new work.

All unemployment claims are handled by the State of Oregon, not the City. To learn more about who qualifies and how to apply, check out the State’s Unemployment Insurance Claimant Handbook. It has clear instructions and helpful details.

Who Can Qualify?

There are two main ways you might be eligible:

• Wage-Based Qualification
  1. You earned at least $1,000 in wages during your base year, and
  2. Your total wages for the year are at least 1.5 times the amount you earned in your highest-earning quarter.

OR

• Hour-Based Qualification
  1. You worked at least 500 hours and earned wages during your base year.