City staff told council members that the city’s current group life and long‑term disability (LTD) plans could be preserved without an increase in employee rates after insurers told staff they would honor current pricing.
The decision matters to city employees because many have supplemental policies and dependents that could face higher individual premiums if the city stopped offering group coverage.
A staff member (unnamed in transcript) reported, “both the standard and Hartford have have agreed to honor our current rates and actually slightly lower on the Hartford for the LTD.” The staff member said council could choose to retain both plans, retain only LTD, or explore third‑party options such as Globe Life, which the staff member said could provide group‑style benefits via payroll deduction. The staff member described one quoted cost as “the lock insurance on us cost $3,000 a year,” and said, “Same cost for the standard of life insurance is $33,000 Yeah. Across the board, everybody.”
Council members discussed wanting employee input and noted that removing supplemental group coverage could force employees with dependents to seek individual plans. Staff said Standard and Hartford want to present to the council at an upcoming meeting and that staff expects to bring a recommendation after those vendor presentations. No final decision was recorded in the transcript; the council scheduled vendors to appear to allow a formal decision at a subsequent meeting.
Staff also said the city could facilitate optional individual plans through payroll deduction with private carriers if the council decided against maintaining the current group arrangements. Council members requested additional rate and enrollment detail from staff and the insurers before voting on any change.