Insurance Committee Meeting of 10/10/2006

I attended the Insurance Committee Meeting on Tuesday. For those who do not know, the Insurance Committee consists of:

• Chairman: Councilman O'Connell (Ward 2)
• Member: Councilman May (Ward 1)
• Member: Councilman Owensby (Ward 3)
• Member: Councilman Schneider (Ward 4)

The subject of the meeting was the upcoming annual renewal of the City Employee Benefits Package (January 1st 2007). Also in attendance were several representatives of the Insurance Brokerage that has been handling this for the City, as well as our City Clerk Linda Downs and Councilman Sellers. I was the only resident in attendance.

As an interesting side note I just wanted to say that I had a very pleasant conversation with Councilman Sellers prior to the start of the meeting. He discussed his granddaughter, I discussed my daughter. It's always amazing how easy it is for people with small children in their lives to communicate (and at times commiserate) with each other at the drop of a hat.

I would like to start by saying that this meeting went very well. It was what you would expect from a meeting like this. Everyone discussed the issues at hand and there was little, if any, of the "sniping" or turmoil we have come to expect at our Council meetings these days. It was not so much that the Chairman did a great job of maintaining control, as it was that everyone in attendance controlled themselves and focused on the issues at hand. It was a pleasure to watch.

The process was explained by a representative of the Brokerage. It seems that every year the Employee Benefits are renewed. Each year the city meets with the Broker to discuss what has worked and what has not, what they would like to keep and what they would like to change, as well as what they think the future might hold. From that, the Broker works out a submission that is sent to a multitude of insurance companies. The resulting offers from those companies are then presented to the Committee and they decide on which company to go with.

Councilman Owensby asked about going out for competitive bids to which the broker explained that the plan requirements the Insurance Committee works out are submitted to many insurance companies, and the offers that follow are all given to the committee for their review. Ultimately the City decides on which offer best suits both the needs of the employees and the City's budget.

The Brokerage created a survey that was circulated to employees recently. Of the 100 employees, 30 responded to most of the questions. Of those responses, on a scale of 1-5, 80% rated their medical insurance as 3, 4 or 5. Also, over 90% of those who responded rated the other benefits (dental, vision, life insurance, etc) as a 3, 4 or 5. When you consider that often, those who have no issue with something don't bother to answer a survey, these seem to be really good numbers. It appears the employees overall are happy with their benefits as is. One of the Broker's representatives pointed out that these ratings are well above the norm.

Councilman Owensby pointed out that he had talked to a number of employees and they all seemed to like the plan they have now. Chairman O'Connell requested that when they get bids, they look into the possibility of reducing the deductibles. Councilman May said he hasn't heard anything negative about this plan from the employees and that most seem to like it.

While considering options for next year's plan Councilman May asked that they seek companies who provide wellness seminars and the like for the employees. The idea being that with better information, employees might better be able to improve their overall health. The Brokerage pointed out that there are several options to implement such a program. One such option is for the City to print wellness flyers on various subjects that are freely available on the Brokerage's website and distribute them with the employee's paychecks.

It was great to see elected officials working well together, considering various inputs and ideas, and efficiently moving forward. Overall, I left with the impression the Insurance Committee was committed to getting the best services for the employees the City could afford, and the consensus seemed to be that they need to maintain the current level of services, while trying to improve on them where possible.

After the meeting Councilman May talked to me about this site's recent article concerning the Appointment of Mr. Blonden. Councilman May wanted to let me know that though they had no information originally, when considering Mr. Blonden's appointment, they had been given his resume a little over a month ago. Councilman May said he had several concerns about that resume, and as a result, he still could not support Mr. Blonden. I won't get into the issues here, as I see no benefit to airing such things about someone's resume publicly.

However, I wanted to make sure we got the record straight. Originally, when Mr. Blonden was presented to the Council by the Mayor (back in June I believe) for appointment to Ward 3's vacant seat, the Council had no information on Mr. Blonden and as Councilman May pointed out at the time, he could not in good conscience vote for someone he knew nothing about.

Then, somewhere around late August, early September, according to Councilman May the Council received Mr. Blonden's resume. Based on that resume, Councilman May (and possibly several others on the Council as well), could not vote for Mr. Blonden.

What we have here is an impasse. The Mayor does not have a majority of votes on the Council, and as a result, to get something passed would require discussion and compromise. If the Mayor and the Council could simply meet and consider all of the various people who have expressed interest in filling that seat, we'd have a better chance of getting it filled. Remember how well they all worked together and through discussion and compromise worked out a Capital Improvements Budget that was passed unanimously this year? If they were to employ that same willingness to discuss the issue of this appointment, and that same spirit of compromise, I think the Mayor and the Council would have a good chance of filling that seat. However, the Mayor would have to be willing to hold such a meeting. Hopefully, we will see this approach happen soon.

Edited to Add: Due to a recent surge in people abusing the comments option on this site (SPAM, foul language, personal attacks, etc), I have decided to discontinue allowing comments on posts in their current form. A section for this site has been added to the Overland Speaks Out site to allow for future comments while enabling me to enforce the rules I had hoped would be followed voluntarily.

It is unfortunate that we have to take this step, however there seems to be no other option. Anyone interested in reading the comments posted there will be able to see them simply by visiting that section of that forum. To post a comment however, you will have to register for full forum access. Registration is free, and fairly simple (requiring only a verifiable email address), however it does allow me to better police this feature.

The hope is that it will allow both sides to communicate about the issues, while preventing the various issues we have had to deal with recently. Thank you for your understanding. As we move forward here, we learn what works, we learn what doesn't and we adjust appropriately.

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