Hamilton County commissioners approve 2026 benefits changes, safety-planning contract and consent agenda

The Hamilton County Board of Commissioners on Oct. 16 approved a set of routine and substantive items including the county's 2026 employee benefits program, a consultant contract for a countywide safety plan and a multi-item consent agenda.

The action matters because the benefits changes include a pharmacy-network shift that county staff say will save about $800,000 annually, and the safety-plan contract is federally funded and intended to guide future traffic and pedestrian-safety projects in unincorporated Hamilton County.

Commissioners voted unanimously to approve the employee benefits package through a "by leave" motion after staff described three principal changes: a roughly 3% average increase in employee contribution rates, a voluntary type-2 diabetes program that provides continuous glucose monitors at no cost to eligible participants, and a carrier-driven pharmacy-network anchor that would remove CVS from the plan's in-network pharmacies and anchor the plan to Walgreens (keeping Walgreens, Kroger and Meijer…