12/03/2002 Meeting Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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Council Minutes of 12/3/2002 based on workers' comp calculations done for us, we could potentially save $75,000 a year with continued good claims management. We are currently reviewing the bureau's report with our third party administrator to make a decision. 2) She and Personnel Director Farver met with Master Benefits, the health care broker/consultant, several times to discuss the health care renewal. As currently designed, the maximum costs for 2002 would be $2,669,000. In 2003, that would increase to $3,045,589, which is about a $376,000 increase or a 14.1% increase. Revising the current plan options to eliminate the traditional plan was reviewed. This revision would revise Option 1 and offer another optional plan. It was discussed by both the Health Care Committee and by the Mayor's labor/management meeting with union presidents and their representatives. After considering past experience and past healthcare patterns, the revised plans could potentially save $170,000 city-wide. The healthcare use patterns are expected to continue for at least another year's time. The actuaries are conservative in their assumptions because they don't want their insurance company to accept more risk. At present, it was decided to keep the traditional plan for 2003 and negotiate it through the union contract process for 2004 and offer an Option Z optional plan. 3) She has spent a large amount of time assisting the Mayor with his 2003 appropriations plan. Obviously, the largest unknown is the potential carry-over. 4) Pertinent receipts at the end of November are now known to include the $68,000 workers' compensation credit for the attendance at the seminar in 2001. All cable franchise fees are in, totaling $297,000 for the year, and $270,000 was budgeted. 5) The state paid the property tax roll back on time at the end of November. 6) She spoke with a RITA representative, and the city is on target to hit $625,000 in receipts to be received in December, which will keep the city at about a 2% increase over last year's collections. The 2% is coming solely from the net profits, which is the most volatile of the income tax. 7) She has spoken with other area Finance Directors recently, and they are all reporting that their city's income tax is flat. It is good that our receipts are holding at an increase. 8) She and the Finance Directors of Rocky River, Bay Village, Westlake and Fairview and invited guest Bill Gareau, Clerk of the Rocky River Municipal Court, met to discuss the court. There was no specific agenda other than it was required for the Finance Directors to meet. It was reported that Rocky River Court had an approximate $220,000 excess this year. She asked why the City of Rocky River does not charge the costs, such as utilities and maintenance and cleaning of facilities, to the court fund. Rocky River Finance Director Susan Wolenzier replied that the state law prohibits this charging. She estimates the costs to be about $20,000 a month, which would equate to $240,000 on an annual basis. Hopefully, these issues will be discussed further during the Legislative Committee's review of the proposed mayor's court. Director Wolenzier reported that the new court building was financed with general obligation bonds, and the repayment would come from the court's special projects fund. This special projects fund was created with $10 of every $45 court cost charge. General obligation debt is backed by the full faith and credit of the City of Rocky River. If the court could not support the debt, there would be no consequences for North Olmsted. 9) Before Council this evening is transfer Ordinance 2002-185, which hopefully will be the final transfer ordinance for this year. She is still holding her options open for the end 4 ~:.~Y...~- .. .