Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Employee insurance costs raised for city

The City of Gurdon will have to spend an additional $13,711 on premiums for employee insurance in 2007 due to a change in the citys rating.

Gurdon Mayor Clayton Franklin addressed the situation with members of the Gurdon City Council during its meeting on Monday, Dec. 18. He said the citys loss ratio is very poor. Because of the rating, the city has changed its deductible from $250 to $500, but the increase is still high, he said.

Our health insurance for employees is going out of sight.

The city will not bear the increase alone, the premiums paid by employees will also increase. Of the total monthly premium, the city pays 80 percent of the costs for an employee and 50 percent of the additional costs to cover the employees family. For volunteer firefighters, the city pays 80 percent of the cost of the firefighters insurance and only 40 percent of additional costs for the family plan.

With a $250 deductible in 2006, the total premium for water police department employees was $1,341, for street department employees it was $1,069 and for fire department personnel it was $3,583.

In 2007 the total premiums with a $500 deductible will be $1,597 for police and water department personnel, $1,272 for street department personnel and $4,268 for fire department personnel.

Gurdon Recorder/Treasurer Tambra Childres said the bulk of the citys $85,644 total premium in 2006 was in family insurance plans for members of the fire department.

The council discussed various options including requiring members of the fire department to pay a larger percentage of their insurance premiums. Childres noted that it takes almost all of the fire departments sales tax revenue to pay the citys part of the firemens insurance premium.

Thats about all we pay for the fire department, Franklin said. But there comes a breaking point.

The possibility of changing insurance companies was also brought up.

Weve been down this road before, Franklin said. No one would take us because of our loss ratio. We want to continue to have health insurance for our employees.

When asked if there is anywhere the additional place the money for the increased cost could come from, Franklin replied, I dont know where.

The council agreed to leave the premium percentages as they currently stand allowing the city and employees to share the increase.

The council also conducted its routine business during the meeting. While reviewing the treasurers report, Franklin said all accounts look good. He noted that the police department was slightly over budget.

Our revenue looks good, so it looks like well hit the end of the year in good shape, he said.

Franklin said that the cemetery and solid waste accounts should break even at the end of the year. He said it costs the city about $10,000 per year to maintain the cemetery and breaking even in that category is good news.