08-11-2010 Council Minutes (2) - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Search

CITY COUNCIL WORK SESSION August 11, 2010 APPROVED 1 CITY OF LINO LAKES 2 MINUTES 3 4 DATE : August 11,2010 5 TIME STARTED : 6:08 p.m. 6 TIME ENDED : 10:05 p.m. 7 MEMBERS PRESENT : Councilmember Gallup,O'Donnell, 8 Rafferty,Roeser and Mayor Reinert) 9 MEMBERS ABSENT : None 10 11 12 Staff members present: Acting City Administrator Dan Tesch; Community Development 13 Director Michael Grochala; Director of Public Safety Kent Strege; City Engineer Jim 14 Studenski; Economic Development Coordinator Mary Alice Divine; Director of Finance 15 Al Rolek; City Planners Jeff Smyser and Paul Bengtson; Environmental Coordinator 16 Marty Asleson; City Clerk Julie Bartell. 17 18 1. Health Care policy (per request of Rafferty& Roeser)—Finance Director 19 Rolek noted that the council requested a review of the city's employee health care benefit 20 program/plan. He noted that the city uses the broker services of the firm Johnson 21 McCann to obtain its benefits. 22 Gayle McCann, President of Johnson McCann,used a PowerPoint presentation(on file) 23 to explain where the city is currently with its benefit program and the process to be 24 employed in the future to maintain a good health care benefits packet for employees at a 25 reasonable cost. 26 27 The council inquired about the inclusion of a wellness program in the package. When the 28 council asked about the prospect of self insurance, Ms. McCann explained that it can 29 work well for some organizations but generally not those under 90 lives; she added that 30 she hasn't been able to convince carriers to allow organizations(cities)to combine to 31 meet that threshold. 32 33 The council discussed the use of health care savings accounts (HSA) in combination with 34 high deductible plans and heard about trends in that area. The council heard about the 35 amount the city contributes to the HSA of an employee in that type of a plan. Staff 36 explained that they have tried to keep the benefit to employees equal; a cash payment is 37 offered to those employees who are able to waive coverage, an option that one council 38 member suggested is not readily available in the private sector. 39 40 The council and Ms. McCann discussed the outlook for 2011 and heard that rates are not 41 yet available but that the city is generally running under the trend. The council indicated 42 they would like more information on self insurance possibilities, comparison of 43 employee/employer contributions and more information on HSA plans. 44 1