McAlester News-Capital, McAlester, OK

Local News

June 13, 2008

Insurance rates will be rising for city employees

By James Beaty

The city expects to be paying a lot more for employees’ insurance this year — but maybe not as much as originally expected.

City Manager Mark Roath said the city’s employee insurance costs are definitely going to rise.

The company which insures the city employees who opt for the coverage paid out $2,253,536 in payments last year, while the city had paid $1,336,946 in premiums, he said.

Roath made the statements during a special meeting held Thursday night for city councilors to finish reviewing the proposed new city budget for the 2008-2009 fiscal year, which begins on July 1 and extends through June 30, 2009.

Much of the discussion concerned costs of the city’s insurance coverage of city employees.

Under the current plan, the city faces a 30 percent increase in the premiums it pays for employee insurance, Roath said.

When Roath asked for other options, the company offered two other plans, one with a 17.70 percent increase in the cost to the city and another with a 23.30 percent increase.

Roath suggested taking the plan with the 17.70 percent increase.

While visits to the doctor would still require a $25 co-payment, the amount employees would have to pay before some other benefits kick in would increase.

“It’s more of a burden on the employee,” Roath acknowledged.

Asked if the city had looked at other insurance companies, Roath said a broker had done so on the city’s behalf.

“This is the only company we were able to get because of potential large claims,” he said. Roath mentioned one insurance company which he said had flatly refused to take on the city “because of potential big-ticket items” regarding the current medical condition of some employees or retired employees.

Not all of the city’s employees take the coverage offered through the city. Roath said 191 employees are covered. Another three have family plans; 22 others have their spouses covered and 11 have their children.

Also during the meeting, the council followed City Treasurer David Burke while he went through other portions of the budget which had not been previously covered in a previous budget workshop.

The start of the meeting had been delayed when a quorum of city councilors failed to appear.

Mayor Don Lewis, Ward 2 Councilor Donnie Condit and Ward 6 Councilor Sam Mason were the only city councilors present when it came time for the meeting to begin.

None of the other four councilors were present. Ward 1 Councilor Weldon Smith, Ward 3 Councilor Travis Read, Ward 4 Councilor Haven Wilkinson and Ward 5 Councilor Buddy Garvin all missed the meeting.

Councilors held off on starting the meeting until City Clerk Cora Middleton left the Council Conference Room and phoned City Attorney Bob Ivester.

“I spoke with Mr. Ivester to make sure we could be here legally,” Middleton said. “He said we could have the workshop, but we couldn’t take any action.”

The agenda for the meeting hadn’t called for any action, only for a work session on the budget.

While four members of the current council missed the meeting, all the newly-elected ones were there. Mayor-elect Kevin Priddle, Ward 1 Councilor-elect Chris Fiedler and Ward 3 Councilor-elect John Browne were all present to listen, with Priddle and Fielder offering occasional input.

Contact James Beaty at jbeaty@mcalesternews.com.

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