Decades of Poplar Bluff city workers have sacrificed raises to preserve the health insurance benefits recently cut by the city council, Municipal Utilities worker Sandy Walker said Monday, during a public comment period of the regular city council meeting.
Walker, union representative Mark Baker and city health insurance policy consultant Jeff Qualls asked the council to reverse a recent decision to cut benefits for new hires. Approximately 20 city employees and others also attended as audience members, applauding their comments.
Council members voted Aug. 5 to drop dependent health insurance contributions and premiums for retirees for future employees.
The new policy will apply to anyone hired as of Sept. 1.
In 34 years as a city worker, her job has been different than most because of the two pages of handbook guidelines that dictate employee actions, Walker said.
“I’m supposed to stand if somebody spits on me, and take it,” Walker said. “I’m not supposed to argue with customers. I’m supposed to be financially stable and take care of my business affairs, so that I’m not an embarrassment to the city. … The city pretty much has dictated my whole life, that I have served with this city.”
Walker asked the council to take into consideration all of the sacrifices employees make.
“We have sacrificed a lot to have what we have,” she said. “Please consider your decision taking (benefits) away from those coming after us.”
Qualls questioned how much the move will save the city, and if it could ultimately hurt the plan as the risk pool shrinks with fewer participants.
“We want the city to have the best employees they can get,” Qualls said, adding benefits are needed for that.
People may not understand the problem the general fund has, said city manager Mark Massingham.
While he hates to pit employees against each other, Massingham said, city police officers receive a top pay of $43,000 a year, while a meter reader with the utility will receive $47,000 after 24 months on the job.
The general fund pays for police, fire and city hall employees, primarily with sales tax and property tax funds. Municipal Utilities workers are paid from a separate account, generated by rate payer dollars for the electric, water and sewer departments.
A stock clerk with the utility will make $52,000, yet a police officer who risks their life every day makes a little more than $21 per hour, Massingham said.
“I can’t give raises because we’re spending so much on insurance and retirees,” he said.
Retiree insurance was about $40,000 in its first year, but now makes up a cost of more than $200,000 a year, he said.
The city’s health insurance fund is self-funded. By the end of 2017, it owed the general fund $2.4 million, said Baker, a representative of International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 702.
“As I now understand it, that balance at the end of April this year, had been reduced to $1.8 million; this represents a $600,000 decrease in only 16 months,” Baker said. “If we continue on the current path, it is possible by April 2023, the deficit could be eliminated and the account could start seeing a surplus.”
Baker said he wanted to appeal to the council’s sense of patience and ask that the measure be repealed.
“Our deficit did not happen overnight. We have made huge strides in stopping the bleeding, and are currently in the healing phase,” he said. “If you continue to proceed with this action, I believe you will drastically shrink the employment pool of qualified applicants.”
The original measure was approved on a 5-1 vote, with council member Ed DeGaris voting against it and council member Barb Horton absent.
“Do you want the benefit or do you want the salary increase? I can’t do both, not the way things have been,” Massingham said. “There’s only so many tax dollars there to pay for everything we have to pay for.”