Pasadena Parade Entry : Insurance Saves the Day for Downey’s Rose Float

The last-minute purchase of a required insurance policy means the city’s entry in the Tournament of Roses parade, a 27-foot-high clown on roller skates, is almost ready to roll.

Members of the Downey Rose Float Assn. signed a contract with a Los Angeles insurance broker last week that will provide the city with liability coverage required for the parade. The purchase was arranged by Don Dixon, a broker who is president of the Downey Chamber of Commerce, after the city was turned down by about two dozen carriers, Downey parade officials said.

Before the policy was obtained, parade officials had appealed to the city for help, saying that skyrocketing insurance costs might force Downey out of the Rose Parade for the first time in about 35 years.

The high cost of insurance has caused similar problems for other cities with their own Rose Parade entrants, such as South Pasadena and Burbank, said Jack French, manager of the Pasadena Tournament of Roses Assn. Tournament officials are attempting to negotiate a blanket liability policy that would cover all floats in next year’s parade, French said.

The insurance company that formerly insured Downey’s float, The Hartford, canceled the liability policy last month because it is discontinuing that line of insurance, Downey parade officials said. The year-long policy covered meetings, work on the float and participation in the parade, officials said.

The cancellation forced Downey parade officials to suspend work on the float for a week and lock the gates at a warehouse where the float was being built, officials said.

The delay in purchasing insurance meant that, for the first time in several years, Downey residents did not get a first look at the float in the city’s annual Christmas parade last Sunday.

“We couldn’t run the risk of having our float on the streets without insurance,” said Jean Albrecht, association member.

The nonprofit association purchased $500,000 worth of liability insurance for $2,700, a 33% increase over the $1,800 the city paid last year for $1 million worth of liability insurance, Albrecht said.

While the Rose Parade has a policy requiring $1 million worth of liability insurance for floats, parade manager French said he has granted the city a waiver.

Built by Volunteers

“We don’t want them to be out of the parade,” French said.

Downey is one of about six cities that uses volunteers to build Rose Parade floats, while about a dozen other cities, including Los Angeles and Long Beach, pay private firms to build them.

In two of the cities where volunteers build floats, large increases in liability insurance were reported.

In Burbank, the cost of a 30-day liability policy jumped from $500 last year to $1,000 this year under the same carrier, said Audrey Sumption, president of the Burbank Tournament of Roses Assn.

In South Pasadena, the cost of a September-to-January liability policy for $1 million jumped from $200 to $400 under the same carrier, said Robert Clanton, president of the South Pasadena Tournament of Roses Assn.

In Downey, Dixon said, parade officials paid $2,700 for a yearlong policy that will also cover more than 20 meetings during the year, which, he said, was necessary to provide full protection. Before Dixon arranged the liability policy, Downey parade officials were quoted prices of between $5,000 and $10,000 for an annual policy, Albrecht said.

Skyrocketing insurance costs are also providing problems for private companies building floats for the Rose Parade.

Jerry Vessley, an insurance broker representing Festival Artists of Azusa, said he had to use a West German insurance firm to provide liability coverage at a 100% increase. The company is building eight parade floats, including Long Beach’s. He declined to say how much the policy cost.

In Downey, volunteers last week began preparing the clown for a blanket of $10,000 worth of red and white carnations, white mums and green belles of Ireland.

Dixon said he arranged the liability policy for the Downey float because he was concerned about young women who will represent the city in the parade.

“All I thought about was those poor little girls who wanted to be queen and ride in the float,” Dixon said. “I thought, ‘My gosh, we can’t let those girls down.’ ”