05-26-2020 Council Packet - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

MINUTES OF THE ORONO CITY COUNCIL MEETING Monday, May 11, 2020 6:00 o’clock p.m. _____________________________________________________________________________________ Page 5 of 22 4. REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS – HEALTH INSURANCE Printup stated he would like a brief rundown of why this is being looked at and why the Council decided to move forward with it so that the public knows the Council is always trying to peel back the layers of the onion as much as possible. Walsh noted the Council thinks costs have gone up 10-20% for many years and they want to go out to the market, which requires the City to terminate the agreement they have, but the City feels they can do better. The Council decided to move forward with that decision at the last Work Session. He thanked Printup for pulling it off the agenda so everyone can have a good understanding of the what/why. He said the City always looks at the dollars for efficiency but at the same time makes sure to get the best product. Printup stated the City also does not want to be held hostage. Crosby said there is nothing like competition in a free market. Johnson asked why the City is utilizing Paychex to do this, if there is a charge, and if there is a benefit. Olson said approval for use of Paychex for payroll services was made at the last Council meeting. He stated Paychex can also act as the City’s insurance broker. They would receive their money in an agent fee directly from whatever insurance carrier the City ends up with, just like Gallagher was the agent when the City was with LOGIS and LOGIS/HealthPartners paid Gallagher. The City does not get billed separately for Paychex to be the agent, but the agent fee/cost is buried somewhere within the premiums. If the City gets better premiums than currently, it is a good thing. Paychex will also handle the City’s electronic benefit enrollment. Currently, the City uses a third party for electronic benefits, but they still have to manually enter those deductions and payments into the system. With Paychex, those changes will be made automatically to each individual’s paycheck. This will make it more efficient in getting employees enrolled in the right benefits and the right payroll deductions set up, and will eliminate one more spot where an error could creep into the system, as there will be no manual entry after this point. Seals asked Olson if there were benefits to Paychex that he had not planned on. Olson answered that this component was an unexpected benefit they found when talking to Paychex. Seals suggested the next time she and Printup push to make changes, that Staff not be so defiant. She said it is not meant to be an “I told you so,” but at times it feels like Staff felt like they had bad intentions. She noted Printup was fighting for this long before she joined the Council. She said she is pointing it out to let Staff know there is rationale behind some of the things they push. She asked Staff to give them the benefit of the doubt. Printup said he was going through some old emails from when he was first on the Council, around 2011- 2013. A common theme in some goal-setting sessions was Council-trusting-Staff issues. He laughed when he read that because now it seems like there is a Staff-trusting-Council issue. When the Organizational Committee was formed, it was not to start cutting and pushing people away and getting people out, it has always been to serve the residents as best as possible, because that is everyone’s job. He said the public is at the top of every organizational structure/chart the City has. If the Council can do it in a lean and mean way, that is what they will do. If it means moving around the shells in a shell game or rearranging the deck chairs, it will happen every quarter if necessary, because things change, times change, and Councils change. He understands change is scary, but this Council is becoming established