Council advances amendment to city code to bring short‑ and long‑term disability administration in‑house

Nancy Wishmyer, Aurora’s city controller, told the City Council at the April 21 study session that staff is proposing an amendment to the General Employees Retirement Plan (GURP) in city code to address short‑term and long‑term disability administration.

Wishmyer said the amendment would change the definition of compensation for disability and disability retirement benefits to include payments the city makes directly to employees through city payroll because the city is shifting administration of short‑term and long‑term disability from a third party to in‑house payroll processing.

Councilmember Jurinski asked about costs and employee input. Wishmyer said staff expects in‑house administration to save the city money and make the process more efficient; a specific cost‑savings figure was not provided during the study session. Jason (a city staff member) said the city had spent years studying the change, held briefings and sought input from employee groups, and that some employees raised significant concerns about the transition—especially changes to accrual rates tied to the city’s move from traditional sick/vacation accrual to a Paid Time Off (PTO) program. Jason said senior employees still accrue several weeks of vacation annually and staff believes the overall program remains competitive.

Terry Walskus said the proposed GURP amendment is a follow‑up to the earlier PTO change and noted a similar adjustment was made to the police retirement plan; the GURP update is intended to align pension plan language with the city’s PTO policy changes.

Council offered no further questions and advanced item 3c to a formal council meeting by unanimous consent. The study session transcript does not include a detailed fiscal analysis or a completed survey result; Wishmyer said she would confirm whether a formal survey had been done and provide cost‑savings details later.