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HomeMy WebLinkAbout11-29-1995COUNCIL PROCEEDINGS OF THE COMMON COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF JEFFERSONVILLE, INDIANA NOVEMBER 2~ 1995 The Common Council of the City of Jeffersonville met in regular session in the Multi-P~lrpose Meeting Room in the City-County Bulldlmg~ Jeffersonvllle, November 1995. The meeting was Indiana~ at 7:3~ P.M, on the 20th day of Jr.~ with Clerk and Treasurer C. Richard Spencer Mayor Parker welcomed all in attendance~ asking all stand as asked all flag. called to order by Mayor Raymond J. Parker Jr, at the desk. those present to Councllperson Steven Stemler gave the invocation. He then those present to 3oln him In the pledge of allegiance to the The roll was called Andrew Williams III~ Donna M. Frantz, Wilson; Steven R. Stemler, and Absent: William Wolpert. Council President Peggy Council met with Clarksvil!e Town and those present were Councilpersons Peggy Knight Wilder~ Barbara Robert L. Potter. Knight Wilder explained the Council on Monday November 25, 1995 to discuss the Interloca! Agreement~ Clarksvllle voted 5-1 on that. Council Prsldent Wilder presented the Interlocal Agreement between the Town of Clarksville~ Indiana and the City of Jeffersonville~ Indiana. Clerk Treasurer Spencer said there is a letter from the MeiJer Company concerning the land will be opening in aloud. (see copy) at the corner of Allison Lane and Highway 62 and 1998. Council President Wilder read the letter Councilperson Potter made the motion to pass the PAGE 2 NOVEMBER 29, 1995 Interlocal Agreement between Jeffersonville and Cla~ksville seconded by Councllperson Stemler. Councilperson Williams commented about splitting of the cost between the two. Mayor Parker called for a roll call vote and they are as follows: Ayes: Councllpersons Williams, Frantz, Wi!der~ Wilson, Stemler, and Potter. Nays: None. Mayor Parker commented on the Interlocal Agreement between Jeffersonvllle and Clarksvllle; he said he thlnks we are one step closer and one of the biggest economic steps that this City has ever had. Mayor Parker said he appreciates the Councils help in this project. Mayor Parker introduced Attorney Bob Lanum who is representing Apollo America and Attorney Lanum presented Ordinance No. 95-OR-53~ An Ordinance Of The City Of Jeffersonvllle, Indiana, Amending Ordinance No. 91-OR-52 In Connection With The $8,0~0.~0 Principal Amount Of "City Of Jeffersovllle, Indiana, Variable Rate Demand Economic Development Revenue Bonds (Apollo America Corporation Project), Series 1991"; approving And Authorizing The Execution And Delivery Of A First Amendment To Loan Agreement Between The City Of Jeffersonvllle, Indiana (The "Issurer") And Apollo America Corporation (The "Company")~ An Amended And Restated Trust Indents]re Among The Issurer, Tokai Trust Company Of New York And PNC Bank, Indiana, Inc. And Any And All Other Related Documents. Attorney Lanum explained the need for the amendment. Following all discussion Councllperson Potter made the motion to suspend the rules on Ordinance No. 95-OR-53 for PAGE 3 NOVEMBER 29, 1995 passing on all three readings, seconded by Council President Wilder. CouDcllperson Potter made the motion to pass OrdlnaDce No. 95-OR-53, seconded by Council President Wilder, and on all three readings carrled unanimously. Councllperson 7:15pm. Dr. Department is Wllllam Wolpert came into the meeting at Kevln Burke~ representing the appearing before the Council to Program. Doctor Burke said he would like for Defibrillator at each of the Firehouses and have personnel be trained to use it. There will be Yellow Ambulance Firehouse and Clark County Health discuss First Response the City to get a the Fire Department a 40 hour course, is the County Vendor and they will actually come into train the personnel during regular hours. The Deflbrll!stor will cost $4~4~.~ and the cost of the training will be covered by County Govenment~ To initiate this Dro Burke would have to appear before the Board of Public Works and Safety. There was much discussion on this sub3ect. Mayor Parker said he would like to have Dr. Burke come before the Board of Public Works and Safety in more detail and involved explainatlon and have the Fire Chief and Police Chief there. Councilperson Steve Stemler, had a few comments about the Insurance Audit Report, he explained the beginning of the Audit and the Committee. He said they met with Authur Anderson Co. representative~ John Brooks in the Louisville Office and the exit audit meeting was held on November 29~ 1995 for 2 1/2 hrs.. Councilperson Stemler said the report in front of the Mayor and the PAGE 4 NOVEMBER 29, 1995 Councilmembers is the exact report that was discussed in the meeting today. Councllperson Stemler introduced Ruth Lee, Consultant with Authur Anderson Co., Ms. Insurance Audit Report. Questions were also asked. a Job description on it and that the Agent of Record Consultant to both Lee explained the review and the whole There were comments and discussion. Councll President Wilder has a paper with she said she has one questlon,"It says professional services developed in 1992. Mr. Cooper would classify yourself as a Consultant for the City of Jeffersonville?" appointed by the Mayor serves as the groups under the terms of the discrlption of you Mr. Cooper answered only two methods Company, statute, Company, in discussing this in the exit interview, there are in which you can represent a client to an Insurance and one is from a Agent of Record point of view and that by and the other one is as a Consultant to the Insurance based upon this report I still feel like !'am a commissioned Agent of Record, but my duty based upon a third party person, looking at me in comparison to other Agents of Record I would have to agree with Ruth that ! do have expanded duties, I think I do have an expanded office and therefore, I do perform things that would be viewed as a Consultant but, I do not receive Consultant fees I receive Agent Of Record commission, and therefore, I can be only one or the other legally so to answer your question I do think I have the expertise to be a Consultant but, I receive Agent Of Record commission so I am only an Agent. But I do do things a normal Consultant will PAGE 5 NOVEMBER 29, 1995 dOd I think she is going to discuss this more later in her report". Council President Wilder said she would like to ask "is this description of professional services approved by the Board of Public Works, Mr. Cooper looked at the paper and said "this is a Job description that is approved by my employer whose is the Mayor of the City Of Jeffersonvllte. Council President Wilder said so if you're an employee of the City Of Jeffersonville, Mr. Cooper said a Job description, not an employee." Ms. Lee explained more of the review. Ms. Lee said the current commission rate of 5% is very standard in the insured market place, in fact its what we see almost all the time that amount for an Agent that is very involved in managing the Health Plan. The compensation is viewed as being relative to the amount of time thats being spent on the plan. Council President Wilder asked "who established the rates back in 1992~ Mayor Parker did you establish the commission in 19927 Mayor Parker said basically the essence of the conversation that I had with the Agent Of Record was that as a new Mayor and him having served under two prior administrations was that I would basically put him on probation to see how it would work for one year, and in any event that that would prove beneficial to the Community, the City then he would continue to served but we never discussed any particular Fates, prices, fees or anything of that nature, no." Council President Wilder said so Humana could have raised the commission and you really wouldn't been aware of it? Mayor Parker said "only if he would tell me that. Council President Wilder said "because there is an increase by 4% from 1994-95, 1995-96~ who approved that 4% increase"? Mro Cooper, said "that increase was PAGE 6 NOVEMBER 29, 1995 approved not for myself but for claims that would be expected or the attachment point, or the specific insurance or relnsurance~ to go one year back, and the only person there, I hate to put him on the spot, was Andrew Williams in 1991 the City Council actually has to get credit for the success of this self-funded plan because the City Council said Edward Culpepper Cooper do a report on the last 8 years tell ~s if we will be making a mistake if we go self-funded. I came back and did a report on self-funded for the 8 years and I said here is the report, 4 years you would be very successful~ or 4 years you would be making a mlstake~ so whats your recommendation, I have none, the City Council said "we want to be self-funded" we want you to do it, I said ok and we went through the Clerk-Treasurer because of the consistancy of his office in being there. We dlslgned a plan, a document went out with quotations~ we used Blue Cross Blue Shield at that time was their name to design the plan document to be quoted by other insurance Companies, at that time Accordia, Blue Cross Blue Shield came back with a quote~ Great West came back with a quote, Massmutual came back with a quote~ and Humana came back with a quote, it was my task to recommend to at that time a new Mayor and a new Council which I failed to do and I apologize for that because you were a new Council and we had from January 1 to April 1, to implement a self-funded plan that we've been told to do by the City Council. In doing that what we did was to take the lowest and best quotation and she addressed this there may have been someone who had a lesser Administrative cost that they had not slgnlficiantly penetrated the Hospital and Doctor network. Some of you will probably remember this, PAGE 7 NOVEMBER 29, 1995 we had a contract with Clark Memorial Hospital a year later that contract ran out~ and the Clerk-Treasurer the new Mayor~ Mr. Potter several Doctors went to the Hospital and got a side agreement to get the same discounts and PTO network even though Humana didn't have a contract, and then the next year they had a contract again, but how that commission was estsbllshed was, i said to the new Mayor and the old City Council this is what you want me to do, I will try to make it work, it was not my recommendation he said ok when I put this in quotation that I receive the same commission that I receive under the old plan as I do under the new plan quotation, and the answer was yes, and that's how we got the commission. Council President Wilder, asked "which would have been under the contract that you had?" Mr. Cooper said "I don't have a contract." Council President Wilder said "this says that you appeared before the Board of Public Works explaining the self insurance plan, this goes back to Monday April 1. 1991, following all discussion and answering questions, that Manager Goldman made the motion to approve the contract as presented to be effected April 1, 1991." Mr. Cooper said "absolutely that contract is between Humana and the City of Jeff, its not between me and the City of Jeff or myself and Humana, and thats what the contract means its the plan document in your respect, all I had was a job description and supposedly if I made this thing work I wouldn't take a cut in pay." Council President Wilder asked "How often do you rebid these?" Mr. Cooper said, "every year for the last three years." That as quote not bid, legally there is a difference." Ms. Lee sald~ generally the Agent Of Record doesn't have a contract they have a letter that they can PAGE 8 NOVEMBER 29, 1995 provide to any carrier that states they have been appointed as Agent Of Record and that's really all that exhists~ and what that means is that if another Agent comes to the same Insurance Company and says we want a quote from the City of Jeffersonvil!e that Insurance Company will say I am sorry we cannot release a proposal to you because we have an Agent Of Record letter from somebody else. So generally it is not a contractual arrangement." Ms. Lee explained more of the review. Council President Wilder~ asked "who wrote the Job description~ Mayor Parker?" Mayor Parker said, I think the prior administration didn't it Pepper?" Mr. Cooper answered, "what we did we took description by at that time Mayor Orem and before the change of Companies we reviewed what I was additions~ deletions and there were agreed upon think you both signed that in 1992 so they agreed Council President Wilder said you agreed with everything in here? Mr. Cooper said ! think we both agreed or we would not have signed it. Council President Wilder, accept!on to claims below that~ don't you think you a agreed upon Job I actually started doings there were Job description I what was in there. Mr. Cooper said I didn't have a problem with that what I found out was I had to pay a lot to make those decisions and thats what her (Ms. Lee) and I talked about, because I took on that responsibility based on the City Councils request~ my E. & O. insurance went up 20% because I took on the Judiciary responsibility and I knew that at that time I Just did not know how much that would cost. Ms. Lee explained more of the review. She suggested to go to multi-year cycle for and then start the evaluate and authorize B10,000.00 if your having a problem with should have taken them out at that time? PAGE 9 NOVEMBER 29, 1995 health insurance plan. Council President Wilder asked do you have to take q~otes from different Agent of ~ecord~ when the contract with the hospitals are up, do those have to coincide. Mayor Parker there are some minutes from the Board of Public Works on January 13, 1992 where Mr Olsen with Robertson and Conner came to the Board of Works and he wanted an opportunity to bid on the the insurance benefit and yol~ said that the current Agent of Record would be retained during the current contract which is up for renewal in May and at that point I think you gave the indication that you would rebld at that point does that mean you would be rebiddlng on what you felt that was a contract with Mr. Cooper or did you want to wait when the hospital contract was up? Mayor Parker said, "I don't remember exactly from those notes how that came about, I do remember Mr. Olsen coming in and asking to bid and I told him that it would be available to anybody and everybody". Council President Wilder, "but it wasn't in writing". Ms. Lee said that the multi-plan year contract to conincide with the end of year plan which would be the same time that you would have your contract with the hospitals. Council President Wilder said the Board of Works m~nutes don't refleck that it was ever opened for bids." Mayor Parker said, he does not recall that he has not seen those minutes". Ms. Lee discussed the reserve that is the plans also discussed the age limit for dependents on the plan. Ms. Lee stated that we have a rich plan, a very good plan of bendfits for the employees. There are a lot of 100% benefits, and they do not see that very much anymore. Clerk Treasurer Spencer told Ms. Lee that the finincial point that as of January 1993 there was $257,000.00 balance plus that we started the 93 PAGE 10 NOVEMBER 29~ 1995 year in, the 92 records are all stored, and at the end of this year we will have excess of $600~000.~0 in the non-reverting health insurance account and it could possibly be $70~,0~.0~ with 2 months to go. and one year the Council under planned by S100~0~.0~ so if you add that in there it would be a little bit more. Mayor Parker said that he has listened to this twice today and I want to compliment you its a very thorough report and I learned more about insurance this morning and this evening than I have known in my life and I think it is very thorough and as a Consultant let me ask you this question. As a Consultant looking at public sector employee benefits packages would you consider the one that I have been able to offer the City employees~ the Board of Public Works~ Clerk Treasurer, the City Council's backing as excellent plan~ do you think it's a good plan?" Ms. Lee responded "as ~ said that it is a very rich ptan, many many employers are cutting back on benefits there putting in higher copayments and deductibles to be met to maintain the thoughts for any number of reasons so I would classify it set of credentials. Mayor Parker said better since being the ultimate person asked questions. Mayor Parker said that curtainly as a broad and rich that makes him feel a little responsible for that. Ms. Lee the other question I have is with the understanding of the part of the Agent Of Record commission or consulting service that I have contracted for do they appear to be reasonable in your opinion as an expert so to speak?" Ms. Lee answered, as I stated in my report they are very standard for an insured plan and what you've done is transferred an insured rate of commission over into a self-insured plan and as long as the City is PAGE 11 NOVEMBER 29~ 1995 comfortable with their range of duties and functions that are being performed Justify the rate of compensation and thats fine~ you know if you have a 1~% rate of commission in there I would say no thata outrageous. Council President Wilder said that don't you state on page 18 that in another area of cost savings is reduced commission that physically commissioned on the insured plan thats based on total premiums. Ms. Lee answered, yes. She said there a whole range of insurance agents, this is the whole range of consultants and what we do to the program. You will find insurance Agents or Brokers who only show up once a year and they deliver your renewal and you either smile and shake his hand and he or she is out the door and you don't see them again unless they invite you to play golf a couple of times. You don't get any advice on plan designs, you don't get any advice on types of agreements you all chance for him to and from the preferred provider arrangement they don't do any negotiating on your behalf with Insurance Companies and take a look at other options. Would that type of person be worth this type of money NO, and its really up to you all to decide on an annual basis as you review whats going on, how much you want in terms of services and how much those services are worth to you. There was more discussion on the review. Councilperson Stemler told Ms. Lee that he really appreciated her presentations and he would recommend final recommendation from the Insurance group that we take this information and implement those points that we should have the authority to the lmcoming Mayor, the Council picks up and does the necessary things to. Thank You very much. Council President Wilder said she would like to say briefly before we adJourn~ that I ,,,~ NOU 28 '95 11:88 FR MEIJER REAL ESTATE 6i6 991 2412 TO 918122856468 P.02/02 MEqER Senior ~ ~state Reuresemative pla: 616/791-3409 FX: 616FTP1-2412 November 21{, 199:5 Hon. Raymond J. Parker, Ir. City of 1effersonville 501 t/. Co,an Ave. - Room 416 J¢ffersonvill¢, Indi:ma 47130 Re: Proposed Meijer Store Jeffersonville, Indiana Dear Mayor Parker: Please be advised that Meijer, Inc. has exercised its option to purchase approximately SS acres of land at the northeast corner of Allison Lane and S.R. 62. A dosing will most likely occur in the first week of December. As I've indicated in the past, M¢ij~r plans to open its first stores in the Louisville/Southern Indiana market sometime in 1997. Although I cannot reveal si~cifi¢ dates for store ol~nings at this tim~, our current schedule indicatas that our Seffersonville store will open in 1998. I rh~nk you for your aasistanc~ regarding this project and, I look forward to continue working with the City as this development go~s forward. If you have any questions, or would !il~e additional information, please contact me at the number listed above. Sin~rely, Senior Real Estate Representative MeiJer, inc. 2929 Walker Avenue, N.W,, Grand Rapids, Michigan 49504 - g428 Telephone (616) 4.5.3-6711