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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes - 19951012APPROVED 12/19/95 1 MINUTES ORANGE COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS OCTOBER 12, 1995 BI-MONTHLY WORK SESSION The Orange County Board of Commissioners met in regular session on Thursday, October 12, 1995 at 7:30 p.m. in the Government Services Center in Hillsborough, North Carolina. COUNTY COMMISSIONERS PRESENT: Chair Moses Carey, Jr., and Commissioners William L. Crowther, Alice M. Gordon, Stephen H. Halkiotis and Don Willhoit. COUNTY ATTORNEY PRESENT: Geoffrey Gledhill COUNTY STAFF PRESENT: County Manager John M. Link, Jr., Assistant County Managers Albert Kittrell and Rod Visser, Clerk to the Board Beverly Blythe (All other staff will be identified where appropriate) NOTE: All background information and signed documents are in the permanent agenda file in the Clerk's office. AGENDA A. EMPLOYEE HEALTH INSURANCE FOR 1996 1. Interlocal Agreement with the NCACC Trust In answer to a question from Commissioner Crowther, Personnel Director Elaine Holmes said that a surplus of funds from payments for insurance coverage would probably be used to lower the premiums for the following year or keep the rates the same for future years. She explained that the payments are made to the Trust who is turn pays Blue Cross. A motion was made by Commissioner Crowther, seconded by Chair Carey to approve and authorize the Chair to sign the resolution as stated below: RESOLUTION TO ADOPT THE INTERLOCAL AGREEMENT AND TO JOIN THE HEALTH INSURANCE TRUST GROUP SELF INSURANCE FUND FOR HEALTH, DENTAL, LIFE AND DISABILITY RISK SHARING WHEREAS, Orange County provides to its employees insurance and other health benefits; and WHEREAS, the North Carolina Association of County Commissioners Health Insurance Trust, hereafter referred to as "NCACC HIT", has been established by counties pursuant to G.S. 153A-445(a)(1) and G.S. 160A- 4660 through 160A-464; and WHEREAS, it is desirable for Orange County to join NCACC HIT and participate in its insurance and health benefits fund in order to provide a method of risk sharing for health-related claims of its employees' NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the Board of County Commissioners of Orange County hereby adopts the interlocal agreement entitled "Interlocal Agreement for a Group Self-Insurance Fund for Health, Dental, Life and Disability Risk Sharing" with the amendments set out in the attached Memorandum of Agreement and thereby joins and agrees to 2 participate in NCACC HIT which has been formed to create a group fund to pay and service the health-related claims of the employees of the counties and other local agencies joining the Trust. BE IT FURTHER RESOLED that Elaine Holmes, Personnel Director is authorized to execute the application to join NCACC HIT. This the 12th day of October, 1995. VOTE: UNANIMOUS 2. Continuing the Health Insurance Waiver Option Elaine Holmes explained that the health insurance waiver amount has remained the same ($67.50 each month) since the option began in 1987. In 1987, $67.50 was the monthly amount the County paid toward employee only health insurance coverage. In 1995, there were 46 employees participating in the waiver option at a cost of $37,260. If these 46 employees enrolled in health insurance coverage, the cost would be $52,633. Chair Carey said he would like to reduce the waiver but still maintain some incentive for employees to opt for this route. He recommended that the waiver stay at $67.50 for the employees currently receiving this waiver, reduce the waiver to $25.00 for new employees and reduce the waiver for current employees on July 1, 1996. Elaine Holmes explained that health insurance is offered on a calendar year. If the incentive was reduced to $25.00 on a fiscal year basis, those employees would not be eligible for health insurance until the following January. A motion was made by Commissioner Crowther, seconded by Commissioner Gordon to set the health insurance waiver at $50.00 for new and existing employees effective January 1, 1996. Chair Carey amended this motion to reduce the waiver for new employees to $25.00 effective January 1, 1996. Effective January 1, 1996, the waiver for present employees will be $50.00 and the waiver for new employees will be $25.00. VOTE: UNANIMOUS It was agreed that John Link will report back the effect of this action. 3. Establishing the Health Insurance Dependent Subsidy Orange County currently provides a partial subsidy to offset the employee cost of dependent health insurance coverage. The subsidy currently is calculated as a flat dollar amount. John Link recommends that the subsidy be calculated as a percentage to even out the subsidy among the three dependent coverage types and to simplify the calculation and make it more understandable. A motion was made by Commissioner Gordon, seconded by Commissioner Crowther to set the subsidy for dependent coverage at 400 effective January 1, 1996. VOTE: UNANIMOUS B. "THE BIG PICTURE: How Board of County Commissioners Goals are linked to the Comprehensive Planning Development Approval Process" At its September 20, 1995 meeting, the Board of Commissioners discussed draft goal statements for FY 1995-96. As part of the discussion, the Board asked staff to provide an explanation of how the 3 various goals fit together into an overall comprehensive planning process. All of this information is in a memo from Marvin Collins to the Board of County Commissioners dated October 10, 1995 which is in the permanent agenda file. He made reference to the chart attached to the memo and explained how the goals were linked to the various elements of the Comprehensive Plan and how the goals fit together. The Board discussed several of the goals, the timelines and how some of the goals will become elements of the Comprehensive Plan. He noted that there is a provision in the subdivision regulations that gives the County the right to require a developer to reserve a school site in a project if that school site has been delineated on the Comprehensive Plan. Since the County does not have a services and facilities plan, this has not been done. They have never been able to get the school boards to identify future school sites. The Commissioners asked that a chart, similar to the one that Marvin Collins prepared, be done for each of the other goals. Commissioner Willhoit made reference to the goal for the plan of action for equitable funding and objective 2 which said that the task was to schedule a series of work sessions with the schools boards to bring about a common understanding of the key issues to continue long range planning efforts and to include 4 topics. These were to be done from October of 1994 to September, 1995. One of these topics dealt with identification of future school sites, 50 year plan, plan for acquisition, etc. He feels this is really critical and would like to move this item forward. John Link noted that this has been discussed at the administrative level. It was decided that there would be a board to board communication with the two school boards to begin the process of identifying school sites and the coordination of these sites for future parks in the County. This topic may be a topic for the Board's December retreat and it will be discussed at the January 29, 1996 school boards/BOCC meeting. c. UPDATES: IMPACT FEES, ETC. Marvin Collins stated that they have been looking at the student's work in terms of reversing relationships on variables. The results were the same. The conclusion is that there is not a significant relationship between any of the variables to come up with a different scale. The school construction standards are the missing information. As soon as he has this information, he feels it will have a very sound technical report. ADJOURNMENT With no further items to be discussed, Chair Carey adjourned the meeting. The next regular meeting will be held on Tuesday, October 17, 1995 at 7:30 p.m. in the Chapel Hill Town Chambers, Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Moses Carey, Jr., Chair Beverly A. Blythe, Clerk