On Donner, on Blitzen, Santa’s Insurance Is Paid for the Day

Santa will ride through Villa Park after all, city officials said Friday, because some last-minute insurance shopping turned up a company that will cover the city for $411.55 for one day only.

“Santa is gonna ride--yeah!,” Ray Morgosh, marketing manager for Knox General Insurance Brokers in Orange, said Friday.

City officials rescheduled Santa’s visit, originally set for today, for Dec. 21, and reordered 800 pounds of candy.

“This is such a big deal to our community that it simply was not acceptable to cancel it,” Councilman Wayne Silzel said.

Villa Park lost its liability coverage when its policy expired at midnight Wednesday. The Chicago Insurance Co., which covered the city for a $27,000 annual premium, refused to renew the contract.

Like other insurance companies, the Chicago firm went out of the municipality coverage business, Morgosh said.

So Morgosh contacted another local broker, Hull & Co. in Santa Ana, which reached Scottsdale Insurance Co. in Arizona. Scottsdale agreed to play Santa and provide one day’s liability coverage of up to $1 million for the $411.55 premium.

While Villa Park did not have a choice on whether to drop its insurance, an increasing number of cities are considering canceling their policies because premiums have skyrocketed.

About 35 California cities are uninsured, and that number will grow , said Don C. Benninghoven, executive director of the League of California Cities.

“Six months ago it was 0, now it’s 35,” Benninghoven said Friday. “I would guess there would be at least 200 uninsured by July.” Most current contracts will expire by July, he said.

Meanwhile, Silzel and his colleagues will ride with Santa atop a fire engine from stop to stop next week as he distributes candy and collects a pillow case full of letters.

“They are so priceless,” Silzel said. “Some have food attached, return envelopes, letters about what we forgot last year.”

But insurance or no insurance, the city of Villa Park is taking no chances.

City Manager Carolyn Veregge said the goodies Santa tosses out will include soft candies: “When we throw them out, it won’t konk them out.”