Finance committee approves holiday gift certificates, health-insurance change and tax levy request

The finance committee approved several routine and time-sensitive items at its meeting, including employee holiday gift certificates, a proposed health-insurance vendor change and the annual tax-levy filing.

Finance Committee Chair (S3) said the committee had $1,123,350.69 in cash on hand and that "if we go with the proposal of moving to Blue Cross Blue Shield of Illinois, our savings will be $68,071.80." Liz (S6), the staff benefits contact, told the committee she had reviewed provider networks and "doesn't see any discrepancies that our employees use now," and added the network is "still as big as what we have." On a voice vote the committee approved pursuing the Blue Cross proposal.

On personnel items, the committee approved $5,825 in holiday gift certificates for employees, with part-time workers to receive $75 and full-time workers $125; the motion to purchase the certificates carried. The committee also moved for the tax-levy ordinance (referred to in the packet as ordinance 15-64) to proceed; S3 said the amount to be levied for 2026 is $791,997 (the ordinance requests the levy; actual receipts may differ).

Committee members spent additional time on an insurance matter after staff reported the carrier that had insured the city generators issued a notice of nonrenewal. S6 said IMLRMA has engaged Travelers RE for an on-site risk assessment and that the city’s current policy expires Dec. 1. The committee voted to allow staff to proceed with a new policy pending a successful on-site assessment and asked to be notified immediately of the premium amount so full council can act if the price is higher than expected.

What happens next: The health-insurance change and the tax-levy ordinance will be forwarded to the full council for final action. Staff will report the generator-insurance premium to council as soon as it is known.