Question from Anonymous

Mr Mayor, With the rising prices of economy and the strain that every citizen in the United states is felling, times are rough. My question to you is just for us city employees. Since we do not get a Cost of living allowance (COLA)and the way the pay is done by evaluation ( Which is a joke ). How about relieving some stress by having the family insurance covered by the city? Single / married couple who has dependents cannot afford now to have the big payments of 400 plus amonth taken out of their check. With all the money that city wants to spend or already has could go for a raise to us all? Even if it's a 8% across the board would make a difference. Raising taxes is a anwser that we or the citizens here do not want to hear. The Restaurant tax is suppose to go to tourism, but we dont see a difference that it has shown. We as city employees want a simple anwser of why that the city could not do a raise or pay for family insurance.

Steve Connelly answered:

The city pays the entire cost an individual's health plan and one-half the cost of a family plan. The city administrator has worked hard this year to negotiate as small an increase in this cost as possible. As you know, our cost is directly tied to our use of the insurance, the experience factor. The provider cost for this year is still being negotiated, but the council hopes to have good news for city employees. However, it will not include payment of 100% of the family plan. A plan user needs to have a stake in the success of that program. Being responsible for only one-half of the cost seems reasonable, don't you agree?