Franklin council recommends Gibson Insurance as city broker after contested presentations

The Franklin City Council voted 4–2 on March 3, 2025 to recommend Gibson Insurance as the city’s professional insurance broker following competing presentations from the incumbent Franklin Insurance Agency and the challenger.

Mayor called the meeting to order and said he had asked the two firms to present potential cost-saving approaches in public so the council could weigh a recommendation before budget decisions. After presentations and a council question-and-answer period, Councilmember (speaker 6) moved to recommend Gibson; the motion was seconded and passed by roll call: Council president Austin — Yes; Mr. Shuck — Yes; Miss Nally — Yes; Miss Price — No; Bridal Reese — Yes; Mr. Taylor — No. One council member was absent due to illness.

Why it matters: Gibson told the council it could produce a holistic, single-broker approach that would improve procurement timelines, centralize accountability and produce what Gibson described as “conservative” annual employee-benefit savings of more than $600,000 while also pursuing property-and-casualty efficiencies. Gibson’s presenters cited specific levers: carving out the pharmacy benefits manager (PBM) to return rebates to the city, adding care-navigation to steer employees to lower-cost, high-quality providers, and more proactive multi-month market engagement ahead of renewals.

Gibson’s presentation included a direct challenge to the current account structure: “Franklin Insurance Agency doesn’t actually represent the city at all,” Gibson said, arguing that contracts are held by another firm and that the current layered setup creates gaps in advocacy and market access.

Franklin Insurance Agency’s owner, John Auld, strongly disputed Gibson’s factual claims and the timing critique. Auld said Franklin Insurance is locally owned, works with Gregory & Appel to access market capacity, and has provided continuous local service for years. Auld told the council he and his staff “meet with department heads” and handle claims and certificate reviews locally. Franklin representatives also questioned whether Gibson’s projected savings are documented and cautioned that some savings estimates are speculative without detailed vendor repricing.

Council members pressed both sides on specifics. Gibson’s employee-benefit representative said a pharmacy repricing analysis of prior claims could have returned between $140,000 and $280,000 over a prior 12–24 month window and that carving out an independent PBM could yield recurring rebate dollars; Gibson also cited a $375,000 potential pharmacy savings from vendor repricing as an example. Franklin’s team said the city’s annual claim cost is approximately $3.5 million and that commission structures and reinsurance costs complicate direct comparability.

Officials also discussed broker-of-record mechanics for property/casualty accounts. Franklin and Gregory & Appel said switching broker-of-record for some carriers could require a cancel-and-rewrite that might change policy effective dates and potentially affect premium, while Gibson said it would manage present policies without rewriting them and would work toward market submissions well ahead of renewals.

After the vote, the mayor said he would act on the council’s recommendation. The council did not approve a contract at this meeting; the recorded action was a formal recommendation to the mayor to move forward with Gibson as the city’s professional services broker.

Next steps: The mayor will decide whether to hire Gibson as the city’s broker and, if so, the parties will work through contracts and implementation details ahead of the next policy renewal cycles.