2006-03-09 - Laserfiche WebLink

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70 Ms. Hamilton asked what will happen if all 116 positions are filled, and Mr. O’Connell said that would result in a budget problem. Police Chief Tim Longo said that five or six vacancies are expected. Responding to a question from Mr. Schilling, Chief Longo said that there were 111 or 112 positions funded when he was hired, the number increased to 120, and it was back to 116 in the last budget. Mr. Schilling asked how this situation was handled in Hampton, and Ms. Beauregard said that the budgets were reduced, but there was a pool of money available if the positions were fully staffed. She said it was reviewed every year. Mr. Schilling asked if money is saved, and Mr. O’Connell said it is saved if the department is not allowed to spend the money on anything else. Mr. Schilling said that if this proposed budget method is good practice for the police department, then perhaps we should evaluate using the method across all city departments. He asked for a report on the feasibility of this suggestion. Dr. Brown suggested looking at bigger departments and seeing if there are historical trends, and if there is a cautious way to budget in that way. Mr. Lynch said that jail costs are up because of salaries, and he said one strategy would be to take two to three years to increase the salaries rather than bump them all up at once. Ms. Rochelle Small-Toney, Assistant City Manager, said that the jail’s pay plan implementation is spread out over three years. Salaries and Benefits Mr. O’Connell presented Council with a comparison of health benefits offered by major employers in the region, and noted that the City’s benefits are less than their counterparts. He said the proposal is to increase employee costs by 7.5%. Mr. O’Connell noted that others subsidize family members’ health benefits and the City does not. Mr. Schilling said the comparison would make more sense if we knew how many people are using the family option. He asked if it would be more effective to change how we are doing it. Ms. Hamilton said it also compares apples to oranges. Dr. Brown said it is not really possible to compare coverage as each offers different things, and there are differences in co-pays and different tiers offered. Mr. Lynch said he would like to see us focus on trying to reduce catastrophic illnesses which would be a huge savings. He suggested charging more of a premium if the employee is a smoker, for example. Mr. Galloway agreed with Mr. Lynch and said there is a focus on wellness. He noted that some of the high cost claims were due to premature births. Mr. Galloway said that we have the beginning of a health savings account with our high deductible plan, next year a health reimbursement plan will be added, the co-pay for wellness visits will be waived, and we will be adding a health savings plan for retiree medical. Mr. Schilling said he would like to see the actual claims charted per month. Dr. Brown said he thinks it would be better to see the actual claims per employee.