Travis County Commssioners Court
April 15, 2003
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Item 18
Number 18 is to consider dral nlg to imoos -- consider draft notice of the Commissioners court's decision on the fy 2003 compensation reserve and take appropriate action.
>> you can asked us last week to draft a letter to employees informing them of the court's decision concerning the compensation conserve of 2.3 million, and the court's direction to make the funding of health care for employees a priority. There's a couple of issues that I want to make sure are clear in terms of the message to our employees. One is the 2.3 million. Some of that may be used to cover any deficit in our health care fund that we have this year. So far at midyear we are at 52% of the budget. Not a significant amount over, but that's one of the things we kept telling the court in terms of just this year's health dare costs. And we know that next year we are facing an increase. We've estimated approximately 25, 25 percent. The amount that we have estimated, the 3.9 million, that is to cover employee only. And would not cover the increase in health care benefits to all the dependents. We have been working on health care employee benefits committee and are looking at several scenarios to bring back to the court, and one of the scenarios would be a plan that would cover everyone's increases, including families. Another one you could see an increase in the rates for families. In others you could see changes in the plans or increases in co-pays. So we're working on several scenarios to bring back to the court and also multi-year plans so that the court is informed -- that we most more thanly inform the employees of the sort of plan changes that we may see in the coming years, maybe not necessarily next year, but certainly in the coming years.
>> meaning what, where you lock yourself into a contract or --
>> looking at just scenarios for '04, '05 and '06 say in three years, some things that you can do to reduce the costs or to shift some of the costs for health care.
>> I just wanted to get that information -- [inaudible - no mic].
>> the unfortunate thing is that every entity is singing the same -- having the same effect.
>> now, that number changes weekly. It started out at 3.5 in the April 4th draft that I got had 3-point #. Today it's 3.9. Do we want to say between three and a half and four million dollars?
>> yes, sir, that would -- that would do.
>> in addition to that i've got --
>> I can go between 24 and 25% is how we ended up changing a couple of nnz.
>> if I were an employee, I would think more than the three and a half to four and a half-million-dollar increase for the whole county would be knowing that today the county pays x amount per month, and in parenthesis, 12 times that for the total annually, to cover your health insurance. If this projection is correct, the '04 cost will be blank per month. If I were an employee, that figure would be a lot more important to me than --
>> that's on the fourth paragraph, and we can highlight it or bold it.
>> yes, that's right. And in fact, because they're suggesting we change the letter --
>> I knew that was a good suggestion. [ laughter ]
>> where we have state cuts, I would change it to the ability of state and court cuts for a variety of services, and then I would list a few of them, and you can go to any copy of the radio or television report over the last month and probably pull out three or four. I would just indicate something that employees have been hearing anyway, but I know they've been hearing about probable state and federal cuts. That seems to be our posture more than a probable question.
>> the question is how much.
>> and down at the end, the question is directed to the county judge, who is always happy to hear from county employees, or add the following language: any member of the Commissioners court by telephone or e-mail.
>> frankly, on nut verse, judge, you had -- version, judge, you had made the suggestion about having them directed to you, but I think sometimes that how busy you are, so we had said the hrmd staff only to collect them and then provide them to the court.
>> that's a great idea. [ laughter ]
>> why don't we try -- [ inaudible ]. [ laughter ]
>> why don't we try a blended version in saying either dan, linda or cindy, who will collect all responses and forward them to the full Commissioners court, making it very clear that we're all going to get them. [ laughter ]
>> yeah.
>> I wouldn't dare take from this court the opportunity to receive input directly from employees. [ laughter ]
>> anything further?
>> do we have any type of dollar as far as what the state is doing as far as their insurance benefits, as far as they're employees? Has there been anything more recent other than there may have to be a suggested -- [overlapping speakers].
>> it's ongoing as we speak.
>> yes, there is. In fact, I can send you the information that we got straight from the straight via e-mail. But they are looking at sharing costs, premium costs with employees and also putting people as opposed to an hmo, a ppo, which means higher deductibles and higher out of pocket.
>> I wanted to make sure the employees of Travis County understand that we're working hard to keep a lot of things in control and as far as continue to budget them accordingly as far as the benefits are concerned. I think we need to continue to focus on it. There may not be a pay raise or anything like that, but I think folks are really suggesting, hey, health care is very important and I want to continue to maintain a health care level as we have done in the past. I think it's pretty critical. Thank you.
>> move approval of the draft and approve distribution after making those very, very, very, very minor changes.
>> second.
>> may I say something? I realize that whenever you're giving news out that you're not giving raises, that you always want to soft soften that blow, but here's what we're doing. I mean, I would caution us to -- we don't know how bad things are going to get. I mean, it scares me to death. I've been over there six times, and when you go -- if you haven't been to the big building across the street, I would suggest that everybody ought to just walk through there and just watch everybody's knees shaking. And it's not a matter of what we're going to get handed to us, it's a matter of how much we're going to get handed to us. And I know what -- I know how people are, when they see something in writing, I mean, they think that's in the bank. You said you're going to give me this. Now, maybe the court, me included, may say, you know, i'll cut everything in the world. I’m going to give you your health insurance, because we kind of said that. But I just -- I just know that, you know, we need to kind of watch those things. I mean, I think this is as good a correspondence as -- that we can get out for everybody, but maybe with a little bit of' -- on the shy side of really letting people know how bad things really could get. But I think it's -- if I got it, I mean, i'd go, well, I’m glad that I have a job and I’m glad that they are cognizant of the fact that health insurance is not something that many people could take on. But I would be remiss in not at least verbal liesing that, I mean, for anybody that is listening, I mean, it is going to be tough times. But anyway, that having been said...
>> and being sensitive to that, if you look at the fourth paragraph in the second sentence, the fy '03 compensation reserve will be used to minimize increases in health care costs to employees in fy '04, minimize. That doesn't make a commitment that there will be no increases because we are bringing you a couple of scenarios that indeed do have increases. If it's not in co-pay, it may be in the premium for families or it may be in sharing of the premium with employees. We're looking at all the options so that we can bring you a good menu of options. And some of those will say if you don't want to do it next year, you certainly need to consider it for the year after, and then start giving the information to employees so that they will also be prepared.
>> was there a second?
>> yes.
>> any more discussion? All in favor? That passes by unanimous vote.
>> thank you.
>> appreciate it.
Last Modified: Wednesday, April 9, 2003 3:52 PM