Council questions city’s change to ‘gross’ accounting in firefighter term‑life contract; finance committee moves item to council

The city’s personnel director and purchasing director defended a three‑year renewal of the municipal term‑life insurance contract at a finance committee meeting Wednesday while councilors pressed for clearer disclosure about how the city reports the cost.

Personnel Director Steven Rotondo told the committee the city had negotiated a three‑year rate freeze with Securian for basic and optional life benefits for active employees; the only increase the department could not freeze was for retired firefighters’ basic life insurance. "This is a three‑year freeze. Our rates aren’t going up," Rotondo said, characterizing the outcome of negotiations.

Change from net to gross presentation: The major point of contention arose from a change in how the administration presented the spending authority. Historically, the city had shown net costs in…