The City of DeBary City Council voted unanimously to approve employee health insurance plans recommended by staff for the 2026 plan year, directing the city manager to execute required contract documents.

Wendy Cullen, the city’s human resources director, told the council Cigna initially returned a renewal with a steep proposed increase (she cited an original renewal figure of $825,992 and described a 38% increase). After soliciting competitive bids through the city’s broker, Cullen presented a Blue Cross Blue Shield option with an annual combined city-and-employee cost of $591,129; she said that compares to the city’s current combined amount cited at about $598,438. Staff recommended maintaining last year’s employer-percentage contribution at each coverage level (employee-only, employee-and-child, spouse and family) to avoid shifting undue cost to employees with dependents.

Cullen also recommended switching ancillary carriers to Guardian for dental and vision, which she said offered small percentage savings, and noted the city’s proposed HSA seed contribution (about $79,900 based on current enrollment).

The council spent substantial time on the city manager’s group life insurance. Cullen said the city’s contract requires two times base salary for the city manager, and with a base of $227,000 that equates to about $454,000 of coverage, but the group carrier will only underwrite roughly $280,000 and applies age-based reductions. “His annual salary is now $227,000 which brings us to an amount of just approaching 454,000 in life insurance, and our carrier will only write 280,000,” Cullen said. She presented options for council direction, including removing the two-times-salary language and insuring the manager up to the maximum the carrier will allow, seeking a separate term policy outside the group plan, offering additional retirement contributions or other compensation, or arranging a reimbursable private policy.

Council members asked that HR research viable approaches and return proposals and cost estimates to the council at the first December meeting; the council did not require immediate contract changes before Jan. 1 but sought options for near-term action. Council member Papalardo moved to approve the health plan recommendations; the motion passed on a unanimous roll call.