City insurers say letter sent in error

(This article has been updated with additional information from the Jan.9 City Council meeting. It also contains an edit from the original story.)

At the December 2023 Comanche City Council meeting, citizen Annetta Garlinger posed a list of questions to the city. One of those questions dealt with the filings on the disappearance of flowers and other items from gravesites at Fairlawn Cemetery.

Garlinger, who had family members in the cemetery with missing items, along with a few others, including her mother Faye Laminack, filed police reports instead of tort claims.

Garlinger said her mother had received a letter from the city’s insurer, Oklahoma Municipal Assurance Group (OMAG), and Garlinger wanted to know why her mother received a tort claim letter when she did not submit a tort claim.

City manager Chuck Ralls said that after the police investigation of the incident that all filings dealing with the cemetery were sent to OMAG for their investigation. Ralls said no one from the city had filed a tort claim on behalf of anyone.

The Comanche Times reached out to OMAG about the tort claim in question.

Matt Love, general counsel for OMAG, responded in an email dated Jan. 4 that the letter was sent in error.

“When a tort claim is filed with an OMAG City/Town, we ask that the City/Town forward a copy of the tort claim to OMAG along with any potentially relevant information,” Love said. “When a tort claim is forwarded to OMAG by a City/Town, we open a new claim file and send an opening letter to the tort claimant.

“Here, the City forwarded tort claims that had been filed with the City to OMAG. The City also provided a copy of a Police report that contained a copy of a written statement the person had provided to the Police.

“It appears that our staff mistakenly opened a claim file for this person based on the witness statement which then resulted in the letter mailed to the person.”

At the city council meeting on Tuesday, council members followed the recommendation of OMAG and denied all tort claims in regards to the missing items at the cemetery..

In a letter sent to those who filed tort claims and to the city, OMAG stats that it has "completed its investigation " and that it was the company's recommendation the the claims "be denied because OMAG finds no liability on the City of Comanche's part regarding the incident."