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County agrees to offer health coverage to hourlies instead of converting positions; proposes fee increases for emergency services and environmental funds
Summary
County staff told commissioners they will offer health coverage to hourly workers under the ACA rather than converting them to full-time positions; commissioners also agreed to send proposed fee increases (including an emergency services support fee rise) to public hearing.
County finance staff asked the commission for direction on a set of FTE and hourly staffing items affected by the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Commissioners were told that rather than converting multiple hourly positions to full-time status (with the related pension and leave costs), the county can now offer an insurance policy to hourly workers at lower overall cost. "Wecan now offer them instead of converting them, we can now offer them a insurance policy at a less expensive model," county financial staff said during the session.
Staff estimated the net FTE/reclassification exposure in the supplemental package at roughly 6.5 positions costing about $498,410 before later adjustments. The county asked for direction on whether to fund conversions; commissioners instructed staff to pursue offering insurance coverage to hourlies and to return next week with a clearer cost comparison between an individual-only plan and family coverage. Commissioners raised concerns about fairness and uniformity across employee groups and asked HR to confirm legal and policy implications before implementation.
On fee-setting, county staff proposed several modest enterprise and support-fee increases to correct fund balances and keep enterprise funds self-supporting. Key proposals the board agreed to send to public hearing included: - Emergency services support fee: proposed increase from 0.016 to 0.028 (estimated $3,400,000 in revenue); staff estimated an average taxpayer impact of roughly $34 per year. - Environmental service/weed control fee adjustments: proposed increases such as raising the environmental fee from $60 to $72 (about $12 on the property tax bill) and a proposed $6 increase for enterprise-user fees to correct fund deficits.
Commissioners said they would consider one-time capital/technology requests separately and favored using the BOE/CIP and grant reserves for non-recurring textbook and technology needs. Staff will return with a detailed individual-versus-family premium cost, legal clarifications from HR, and public-hearing dates for the fee changes.
Ending: The commission directed finance and HR staff to finalize an hourly insurance cost comparison, confirm legal application countywide, and place the emergency services support fee and proposed environmental fee adjustments on the public hearing schedule.
