Travis County Commssioners Court
June 15, 2004
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Item 27
Is it appropriate to us to skip over to 27 since it is kind of a subset of that (item 25)? And then we will come back and hit the job analysis and do everything associated with that. 27. Discuss and take appropriate action on recommendations from the retiree policy committee on retiree benefits effective October 1, 2004.
>> what we are asking you to vote on today is a preliminary report from the retiree policy committee. The retiree policy committee has been working since January and they have been charged with setting policy for benefits for retiree -- for retirees of Travis County, as we discussed within -- within 10 years, we expect the number of retirees to -- to quadruple, go up about 400%. Those individuals that are eligible to retire, doesn't mean that they all will, but that are eligible to retire. Because of new gasb regulations the county will also be expected to have accrued the money to provide or have an -- have an accrual for the amount of that -- that we would pay out for those retirees. Because of -- because of those two statistics or those two key points, the committee came back with preliminary recommendations that would become effective October the 1st of 2000. For current retirees, a person would be eligible to enroll July through August of '04 and any subsequent annual enrollment in the Travis County health care plan as a retiree only if they are currently receiving an annuity from tcdras or, two, either currently enrolled in the health care plan and have worked at least 8 years in Travis County, even if not currently enroll understand the health care -- enrolled in the health care plan. So it puts a minimum service of 8 years, but if you are already enrolled in the health care plan and don't have 8 years, you can re-enroll. Okay? Two, again this is for current retirees, a person who is already retired from Travis County service must be enrolled in the Travis County health care plan for fy '05 in order to be eligible to enroll in the county health care -- health plan at any fiscal year after that. You must enroll in '05 to be eligible after that. To -- to maintain health care with Travis County.
>> many of us, I think we all got the same, I will not use the employee's name, but we have an employee x who has retired a couple of years ago, but as -- has absolutely no intention to start applying for their benefits because they are still a youthful person. They are still doing other things. If they were to apply on the first day of their rule of 75, they would substantially harm their retirement benefits. But they don't want to lose the option to be able to get the health insurance because they always thought that that would be an option available to them and they would not have a retired -- would not have retired when they did thinking that that was an option that was cut off. That they would have to make a tough choice between retiree insurance and their retirement benefit that they have earned and are entitled to do. Can anyone give me clarification about whether we should be cutting off option --
>> have already retired.
>> they have quit Travis County.
>> they have quit Travis County.
>> if they are no longer working for Travis County, and they are not -- not yet getting benefits under the retirement, from the retirement system, the -- the recommendations that the committee brought forward to you for this year do not cover them. That particular group of people have been a very heated aspect of discussion. And the committee has not come to a resolution. The committee was given the impression that the court would like to move on some things this year. It would -- in relation to retirees, so we tried to -- to tailor recommendations so that it did not cover people who were in hot categories. Right now, so that those could continue to be discussed. Be resolved in the context of -- of the financial circumstances that will surround the -- the implementation over the long-term of whatever the program turns out to be. But -- but the -- but the people who will be covered by what is included in those recommendations is -- is, say, in -- in November, after October 1, I decided to quit. I at that point would then have to take the -- take the health care or not be eligible for it after that according to what is stated there. But the thought in the committee discussions was that -- that if you have already quit your job, you don't have the option to come back and take it up again.
>> right.
>> if you are thinking about quitting your job, and we have warned you that this is a ramification that flows that you have to keep the insurance from the time you stop working for Travis County onward, if you want to have it, then you can make a decision that you think is right for you and it affects you for the rest of your life. It does and it doesn't. If you decide to take the insurance, and then two years from now decide to drop it, you can still drop it. But you can't decide not to take the insurance and then two years from now decide to hop on.
>> okay. So -- so the three categories that we have are people who are retirees right now drawing the annuity, by whether you are or aren't taking the coverage, one category. Then there is basically all of us, still working here, and are presumably going to be working here and after -- after October 1st, anybody that's here right now, a future retiree, will have decisions to be made that would be impacted. But those who have already quit Travis County, but are not yet pulling down their retirement, they are kind of in what we call limbo land, they are not impacted by anything that we are doing related to the recommendations coming from this committee. Is that correct?
>> that's the intention.
>> not yet, not yet.
>> mainly those folks that have no way to -- to extend their service here because they have already left and made other life decisions. We are not considering them as a retiree, not receiving a tcdrs annuity.
>> not in this definition after future retiree.
>> we are still kind of passing out some of these issues.
>> frankly, there are people who fall all over the spectrum on which should be done with them. So the committee would be lying to you if they told you they knew what they were going to do next. Too many opinions there to even guess.
>> is there a big difference on what we do decide to do with our gasb accrual. We are getting some input from the actuaries, too, before we want to write anything in stone because the policies that we make, each policy that we make impacts what that accrual needs to be, we are trying to tread very carefully.
>> is there clarity among everybody about who is included in this and not. Is there a motion related to the recommendations?
>> I move approval of the recommendation?
>> second.
>> moved and seconded. And people are watching me so they are asking very good questions about am I in that group.
>> right.
>> all right. Any further discussion on the recommendations? All in favor? That passes by unanimous vote.
>> I would like to point out that we are sending out this entire verbiage to the retirees in our mailout to them. Encouraging them to get what they charge, if they have any questions on whether they apply to them or does not apply to them.
>> is that [indiscernible] for future retirees, also.
>> it was just number one on current retirees, I?m assuming that we are going to take these one by one for clarification. For clarity on the motion melissa that was about recommendation --
>> [indiscernible]
>> the recommendation related to current retirees, is there a motion on future retirees?
>> is number 2 the separate recommendation? [multiple voices]
>> separate.
>> [multiple voices]
>> current retirees, future.
>> okay. So under current retirees, Margaret approves -- moves approval of item no. 2 under current retirees.
>> second.
>> moved and seconded. Okay, all of those in favor. That passes unanimously. Mow we are moving to future retirees. Do we have any motions?
>> move approval on number one.
>> I will second that related to -- to completing eight years of service to be eligible.
>> further discussion? All in favor? That passes unanimously.
>> number 2.
>> yes, ma'am. After October the 1st of '04 on future retirees to be eligible to be enrolled in Travis County health plan as a retiree, a person who quits working as a regular employee for Travis County must, one, or a be eligible and have applied for their immunity from tcdrs, b be covered by the health plan when the person quits working for the county as a regular employee and, c, notify the human resources department in writing that they want to continue health care coverage of Travis County.
>> move approval.
>> second.
>> do we need to add in the corollary since they are tied into number two, alicia?
>> I think for the documentation we will have those as backup, but I would say approval of number one and number two.
>> moved and seconded. Any further discussion?
>> on that one, I mean, that one is really going to be -- going to be I think one of the ones that really needs to be -- where people really understand so they don't get technicalitied out, it would be one of those things that would really get by you unless you understand.
>> this is really important for the retirees that are current decliners, they need to pay attention to this. If they have an intention of coming on the health plan when they do retire, they need to make the appropriate decisions when it's time for them to come on the health plan. We don't want them to show up at the day of their retirement thinking they have health benefits available to them.
>> is there a retirement packet, though, in other words -- [multiple voices]
>> we are revamping our retiree information [multiple voices] we want to make sure that we have the packet --
>> these are the things that you should do, your choices that you need to make as you retire.
>> dan and I are working on -- [multiple voices]
>> you need to have a packet of information so they will know.
>> I think that people just assume.
>> yeah.
>> that, you know, i've got down there, I mean, 27 people came down in the room, all congratulated me, and bingo I?m on the golf course day after tomorrow. I?m taken care of.
>> may not be.
>> like I said, everything that we are talking about here is for people that are still here at Travis County, therefore have more control over their decision making process as to when they decide to leave here and to retire as opposed to those who are gone and have no way to take back a decision that they have made.
>> uh-huh.
>> right.
>> we thought if they had different -- [indiscernible] all right. Any further discussion on item no. 2 with all of that corollaries? All in favor? That passes unanimously.
>> what can be done --
>> ready to go. I need to walk it to the print shop right now. I will have it mailed out tomorrow to the retirees, start the employee notification maybe as early as this afternoon because we have that piece ready to go, too, we were just waiting to see how it went in court, what was approved and what wasn't. We are ready to reach out and touch people.
>> all right, thanks.
>> that is on the notification to employees about -- about what was approved to the -- by the court today. Is that what you are asking?
>> yeah.
>> okay. Thank you. Which is going to take us next, item no. 26.
Last Modified: Wednesday, June 16, 2004 1:30 PM