Evendale Council approves emergency ordinance to renew Anthem coverage, OKs IT transfer and annual tax certification

Evendale Village Council on Tuesday approved three emergency measures: a contract renewal with Anthem for comprehensive health insurance for full‑time village employees, an internal budget transfer to fund IT servers, and the annual tax certification that sets required levies for the county auditor.

The council read Ordinance 25-60 — authorizing the mayor to enter an agreement with Anthem — and moved immediately to suspend further readings and adopt the emergency clause and the ordinance. Mr. Elmer, speaking for administration, said the renewal keeps the same plan design with a proposed 5% increase in premium from last year and that he did not have the exact premium amount immediately available. "This is an opportunity to renew our current plan design with Anthem, at a proposed rate of 5% increase in premium from last year," he said.

Separately, Council approved Ordinance 25-61, an administrative transfer to provide additional funds for IT servers and related equipment. Council discussed the transfer only briefly; the transcript recorded that extra funds were needed for IT servers but did not state a dollar amount. Council suspended second and third readings, adopted the emergency clause, and adopted the ordinance as an emergency by roll call.

Council also adopted Resolution 24-05, the annual resolution accepting the amounts and rates as determined by the budget commission and authorizing the tax levies to be certified to the county auditor. The mayor noted that there were no new tax levies (the rate was shown as 0) but the resolution is required and was adopted as an emergency.

All three measures passed on unanimous roll-call votes. Roll-call prompts and affirmative responses recorded in the transcript include councilmembers Patterson, Burke, "Smiley Robertson" (transcript spelling varies across sections), Sextro, Putoff, and McDaniel (each recorded as voting yes during the respective motions and adoptions).

Budget context provided earlier in the meeting underscored the immediate policy environment: Councilmember Burke reported September tax receipts of about $1.7 million — down roughly one-third from the prior September — and year-to-date tax receipts of about $16.4 million (reported as down ~1.5% from last year). He said September expenditures exceeded receipts by approximately $301,000 and year-to-date expenditures exceeded receipts by approximately $536,000, a gap attributed in part to costs associated with the new service building.

What’s next: The ordinances take effect as emergency measures immediately. The council also scheduled an open house for the new service building and other project updates were discussed during committee reports; no further public hearings or additional council votes on these three items were recorded in the transcript. The meeting concluded with adjournment.