Council okays change in health insurance for employees with jump in deductibles, out of pocket maximums
Outgoing Jefferson mayor Craig Berry was honored for 31 years of continuous service as an elected official at the city council meeting Tuesday evening.
Berry lost his bid for re-election to Matt Gordon by 19 votes, 494 to 513. Berry had served as mayor for 12 years and as city council member for 19 years before that.
City attorney Bob Schwarzkopf administered the oath of office to Gordon and to council members Matt Wetrich and Dave Sloan, both of whom were re-elected, as the last item of new business on the agenda.
After staff and committee reports, city administrator Mike Palmer rose to present a plaque to Berry. Palmer named the Highway 4 overpass, the downtown streetscape project, two RAGBRAI® overnight stops, initial leadership in bringing Wild Rose Casino to Jefferson, and helping Jefferson become a Main Street community as highlights of Berry’s tenure as mayor. Palmer also said Berry organized the county mayors’ roundtable, a monthly meeting of the mayors of all Greene County towns. Palmer mention Berry’s involvement with Cyclists of Greene and the Bell Tower Community Foundation.
On a personal note, Palmer added that Berry is the last elected official who was active when he was hired as city administrator in 2008. “During that time you provided a lot of leadership, a sounding board, mentoring, and friendship. I really appreciate it,” Palmer said.
Chuck Offenburger of Cooper credited Berry’s enthusiasm with the success of both RAGBRAI visits. He said Berry’s strength as mayor has been his ability to build consensus. “He can pull together the darnedest groups of disparate people who disagree on lots of different things but get them to agree on some things, and then move ahead from that,” Offenburger said. “As a result, I don’t know of a community of our size in the Midwest that has advanced as far as we have in such a short time. I think people decades from now will be talking about the Craig Berry years.”
Offenburger clarified that it was “the doing of a lot of people in this room today, but it was his leadership.”
Peg Raney, Jefferson Matters: Main Street director, said Berry has “been around a long time, but he always has new ideas to make Jefferson move forward.”
Police chief Mark Clouse said he thinks Berry is leaving the city a better place than he found it. Council member Harry Ahrenholtz mentioned Berry’s “active imagination” and called him “a visionary.” Wetrich said he respected Berry’s humility and humbleness.
City clerk Diane Kennedy thanked Berry for using her ideas and respecting her experience and expertise. She is retiring at the end of March, and said her retirement was based in part on Berry’s departure as mayor. “If Craig isn’t going to be mayor any more, I don’t want to be clerk anymore,” Kennedy said.
Under the agenda items, the council approved a Wellmark health insurance policy for city employees starting Jan. 1. The city has used Wellmark the last several years.
Continuing the current plan would have incurred a 20.8 percent cost increase to the city.
The plan recommended by Kennedy increases the city’s cost 12 percent. City employees will see their deductibles increase from $1,500 individual/$4,500 family to $2,000 individual/$6,000 family. The annual out of pocket maximum increases from $3,000 individual/$9,000 family to $4,000 individual/ $12,000 family.
According to Kennedy, the 12 percent increase is composed of a 5 percent industry-wide increase due to rising healthcare costs, and a 7 percent increase based on the city’s claims experience for the past two years.
The portion of the premium employees pay for family coverage will increase $122 per month. Kennedy said city employees had been notified of the proposed changes on Monday and that she hadn’t heard any comments.
The city does not currently offer health savings accounts, which would help employees meet the deductibles and out of pocket costs.
The estimated total annual group insurance premium is $576,653.28.
The council approved the purchase of a security camera and software to monitor the front desk at city halls, as well as chimes on the front and back doors. Palmer said there have not been specific problems but that it’s time to increase security with the ability to record activity. Cost of the camera with a 10-year software license is $2,435.19. Cost of the two chimes is $317.83.
The council approved a resolution in support of Jefferson Matters: Main Street’s design committee purchasing and placing bronze plaques on 33 buildings in Jefferson’s historic downtown. Cost of the plaques is $56,500. The resolution will be included in a grant application to Grow Greene County.
The council also approved $5,650 from the hotel/motel tax fund as a match for the Grow Greene County grant. Sloan abstained from voting on the resolution of support and the funding, saying that his company is a bidder on the project.
The Dec. 24 council meeting was canceled as part of the consent agenda.
No action was taken on filling the council vacancy now that Gordon is mayor. During the open forum portion of the meeting, Shelly Thornton presented a letter to the council in support of appointing Sean Sebourn to fill the vacancy. Sebourn ran for council in November and received 457 votes. Sloan and Wetrich received 652 and 613 votes, respectively.
During the reports portion of the meeting, Wetrich said the county recycling coalition met recently to discuss matters relating to the change in recycler due to Imagine the Possibilities taking over Genesis Development. Imagine does not do recycling as an employment source for clients, whereas Genesis did.
There were bins for recycling material at the Genesis location for many years. Although the bins were intended for rural residents, Jefferson residents used them frequently. With the loss of Genesis as the recycler, the city of Jefferson contracted with the city of Carroll for recycling services and the outlying towns are using Boone County as their recycler. As a result, Boone County is dealing with recycling material from Jefferson residents without being paid.
Wetrich reported new drop boxes have been ordered for the recycle drop site, which is now located at the city water plant on N. Cedar St. The drop boxes will be clearly marked for who is to use which box.
