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as much as we have been taking. NJPA has subsidized New Brighton's costs over the past 3 <br />years to the tune of nearly $1,000,000. Health insurance for 2015 will have an increase of 22.3 °a. <br />This increase wasn't known to the City until September 23, 2014, after the preliminary levy and <br />budget were set for 2015. Therefore increase in insurance was not included in the 2015 budget. <br />Management met with the employee insurance committee when the increases for health <br />insurance became known. Because of the underwriting and past claims, unfortunately, those <br />employees choosing the Family and 'Single + 1 options for insurance will have increases of over <br />150% for their portion of the premium payment in 2015. This would be a $457.89 increase per <br />month for employees choosing the Family option in the current $1,50033,000 deductible plan. <br />Thirty of thirty one employees choosing Family coverage are currently in this plan. Employees <br />will have the option to go to higher deductible plans, a $3,000/$6,000 and $5,0001$10,000 plan, <br />which would decrease premium costs but would expose them to a much larger deductible. <br />The City Manager directed Management Analyst Hatch to meet with the insurance committee to <br />assist in developing options that would be reasonable and equitable. The insurance committee <br />has met each week since the increases were known in order to create and develop options for the <br />City Manager and City Council to ultimately consider. These options range from leaving NJPA <br />and going to MNSURE or some other insurance cooperative, to completely changing the designs <br />and funding numbers of the current insurance plan for employees. Management and the <br />insurance committee will continue to explore all options to lower and minimize costs for <br />insurance in going forward, but for now the City is positioned with a need to act since we have <br />two open union agreements and open enrollment for insurance will be closing December 12th, <br />2014 for the 2015 fiscal year. <br />Reorganization <br />In order to more effectively deliver service for the City of New Brighton, save funds in the 2015 <br />budget, and provide relief for the large increases in health insurance the City Manager would like <br />to reorganize staff in the Public Works and Community Development Departments to achieve <br />the following goals: 1. Maximize existing staffing dollars in the budget. 2. Provide budget relief <br />by offsetting increased costs. 3. Provide for leadership advancement and growth opportunities for <br />high performing staff, 4. Reallocating budget funds which can be allocated to alleviate large <br />increases for health insurance. <br />In order to achieve the above stated goals several things need to happen. The necessary steps are <br />as follows: <br />1. Reposition the Public Works and Community Development staff. <br />2. Create a Director of Community Assets and Development. <br />3. Create an Assistant Director of Community Assets and Development. <br />4. Eliminate the position of Public Works Director. <br />5. Eliminate the position of Community Development Director. <br />6. reorganize the GIS Analyst position with an emphasis on engineering and planning. <br />7. Downgrade the Senior Engineering Supervisor position. <br />