Being the risk manager of a public entity, I'm told, is a difficult and at times thankless job and many public entities have their risk managers to thank for saving both money and lives. But some of the reports I'm getting here, at the Public Risk Management Association's annual conference in Dallas, from some vendors and third party administrators, is disappointing.

One vendor, who works with a number of public risk managers nationwide, offers a product that has been shown to save money for public entities, often in the millions. But when I observed that the product seemed like a no-brainer for public entities, there was silence. Many public risk managers, I was informed, openly admit they are not interested in saving their entity money, and are only concerned with maintaining the status quo.