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Committee refers $82,000 Local 25 benefits appropriation to administration for budget clarification
Summary
The committee referred without recommendation an $82,000 appropriation request for the Human Resources Local 25 Benefits account after the interim HR director outlined enrollment-driven costs and members requested answers about prior-year budgeting.
The Everett City Committee on Ways and Means referred without recommendation Monday a request to appropriate $82,000 from the general fund balance to the Human Resources Local 25 benefits account, asking the administration for budget clarification before the full City Council considers the item.
Interim Human Resources Director Mr. Russolillo told the committee the request would fund two items tied to Teamsters Local 25 employees: a city contractual obligation to pay $22 per week for each enrolled membera Teamsters dental contributionand a contractual legal defense fund assessed per hour worked for Local 25 employees. Russolillo said the city currently has "about, give or take, 156 members at the moment" and that open enrollment began the day of the meeting, which might increase enrollment.
Russolillo calculated that $22 per week equals $1,144 per year per enrolled member and about $95.33 per month per enrolled member; he asked for $37,000 to cover the near-term months and an additional $45,000 to correct where a legal defense fund contribution had been charged from a withholdings account rather than the HR budget. He said the legal-defense assessment is taken as a per-hour contribution and that approximately 130 Local 25 employees are currently subject to that assessment; he estimated the legal-defense payments total about $3,500 per month.
Committee members pressed for details about whether the Local 25 costs had been budgeted in prior fiscal years and how much remained in the withholdings account. One councilor said they could not support the appropriation to the HR account without confirmation from the CFO on what was budgets and what remains in the withholding account. The committee then voted to refer the item to the administration with no recommendation, asking the CFO and other administration staff to confirm whether the $45,000 correction should have been budgeted previously and to provide specific ledger balances before the council meeting.
The referral preserves committee oversight while the administration provides the requested accounting details.
