(Canyon)—The last online course William “Danny” Richards completed at West Texas A&M University fit into his plans perfectly and wound up saving Hutchinson County and the city of Borger $60,824 in workers’ compensation insurance premiums—about a 10 percent reduction.
It also helped the county win a Gold Star Award for excellence from the Texas Association of Counties, which administers the county insurance risk pool in Texas.
Richards, emergency management coordinator and arson investigator for both Hutchinson County and the city of Borger, is a student in West Texas A&M’s Emergency Management Administration (EMA) program, which is delivered completely online. Over the summer he took EMA 3310-Risk Management, a course taught by Edwin Maloy, associate professor of public administration.
Also over the summer, Richards found himself working with a group of city and county administrators to develop a proactive risk management plan. Their primary goal was to come up with a safer working environment for city and county employees.
“It was sheer coincidence that I was taking Dr. Maloy’s class at that time. It was tailor made for what we were trying to do in Hutchinson County,” Richards said. “It was a miracle. The course was a step-by-step recipe to success. When I submitted my final project for the class, it was the exact plan that was adopted by our County Commissioners Court.”
The plan contains a number of proactive and comprehensive safety initiatives, things like new fire alarm systems and electronic security systems for public buildings. Various drills, safety classes and training procedures also were incorporated and already have been put into practice.
County commissioners were not the only ones delighted with the plan; a representative from the Texas Association of Counties inspected implementation of the risk-management plan and recommended Hutchinson County for the Gold Star Award.
Richards and the county learned Sept. 21 about the $60,824 in premium savings.
“It was great news to our county and even better news to me,” Richards said. “I would urge anybody in public service, especially administration, to take Dr. Maloy’s course in risk management because it can have immediate, real-life results.
“Dr. Maloy’s class helped us make our workplaces safer, which was our primary concern. The monetary savings is just icing on the cake. It was all so immediate.”
West Texas A&M’s EMA degree was specially designed by the university in cooperation with the Texas Engineering Extension Service for nontraditional students who can complete the program while remaining employed full time in governmental or industrial emergency management positions. It is the only four-year emergency management program in the state of Texas that combines the curriculum of public administration and business management.
“I could not be happier about what Danny and Hutchinson County have
been able to achieve in such a short period of time,” Maloy said. “It
is always gratifying to feel like you’ve played even a small part
in something for the public good. 
