Budget Review Committee

BUDGET REVIEW COMMITTEE MAY 3, 2012 A meeting of the Budget Review Committee was held Thursday, May 3, 2012 at 7:00 p.m. in the Aldermanic Chamber. Alderman-at-Large David W. Deane, Vice Chair, presided. Members of Committee present: Alderman-at-Large Jim Donchess (7:02 p.m.) Alderman Richard A. Dowd Alderman Mary Ann Melizzi-Golja Members not in Attendance: Alderman-at-Large Brian S. McCarthy, Chair Alderman-at-Large Mark S. Cookson Alderman-at-Large Lori Wilshire Also in Attendance: Alderman-at-Large Barbara Pressly Mark Conrad, Superintendent, Nashua School District Robert Hallowell, President, Board of Education Robert Sherman, President, Nashua Teachers’ Union Chairman Deane Alderman Pressly you will sit in as a voting member as an at-Large until such time as another appointed member to the committee happens to appear. Alderman Pressly Honored to do so. Thank you. Chairman Deane Thank you. PUBLIC COMMENT Robert Sherman, 7C Taggart Drive President of the Nashua Teachers’ Union that represents this unit whose contract you are going to take a look at. I need to hope that you will approve it because we worked hand in hand with the President of the School Board in arriving at this contract. I’m hoping something positive comes out of this committee. Thank you. Chairman Deane Thank you Mr. Sherman. Is there anyone else that would like to come up and give some public comment? COMMUNICATION – None UNFINISHED BUSINESS – None Budget Review – 05/03/12 Page 2 NEW BUSINESS – RESOLUTIONS R-12-32 Endorsers: Alderman Richard A. Dowd Alderman Mary Ann Melizzi-Golja Alderman Michael J. Tabacsko Alderman-at-Large Lori Wilshire Alderman Kathy Vitale APPROVING THE COST ITEMS OF A COLLECTIVE BARGAINING AGREEMENT BETWEEN THE NASHUA BOARD OF EDUCATION AND THE NASHUA TEACHERS’ UNION, LOCAL #1044 AFT, AFL-CIO, UNIT B PARAPROFESSIONALS FROM JULY 1, 2012 THROUGH JUNE 30, 2014 MOTION BY ALDERMAN DOWD TO RECOMMEND FINAL PASSAGE ON THE QUESTION Chairman Deane Who is going to be the presenter? Mr. Hallowell are you going to do it? Did you want to walk through the… Robert Hallowell However you would like me to do it I can… Chairman Deane Do you want to walk through the analysis? I just had one question in the analysis area over the increase. Robert Hallowell Do you want me to walk through it or do you want to ask questions? Chairman Deane Where you went from $6,628,069 to and it ramped up to $6,760,630 to $7,003,442. My only question is that pertains to the base pay calculations. Robert Hallowell Yes. Chairman Deane And you have 371 full time equivalents (FTEs) or employees. What sort of planning has been done in the out years for the school budget to absorb this? Have you folks looked at these increases going out in your operating budget with these contracts when they come in? Budget Review – 05/03/12 Page 3 Robert Hallowell Well in this year’s budget we set aside 1% as a contingency so there is the 1% that we have to make up. For better or worse it is a relatively small amount of money compared to the entire budget so I certainly don’t think we are going to have any trouble absorbing it in the first year. Chairman Deane You are looking at making up about $66,000? Robert Hallowell Right. Chairman Deane For 2013? Robert Hallowell Correct. Chairman Deane That you don’t have. Okay. Robert Hallowell And in the second year…the way we do these analysis the 371 is actually what we had in FY12, at the beginning of FY12 for paraprofessionals, which is mostly special education paraprofessionals. When we do these contract negotiations, I think it is the same throughout the City; you make the assumption that the same people are going to be there in the following two years so you can do things like longevity, step increases if there were any, that kind of thing. You end up in a situation where you will have some breakage in the sense that there will be some paras that will leave; probably not too many, we haven’t had a lot leave in the past few years with the economy. So there will be some breakage there. Obviously we’ve already included the 1% in our budget and will make up the 1% by other means. We haven’t made that decision at the board level as to how that money will be moved around next year. Chairman Deane Are you budgeting for 371 this coming year? Robert Hallowell Yeah, that is what is in the budget. Budget Review – 05/03/12 Page 4 Chairman Deane So the 371 is being left in there. Robert Hallowell But the way the special education paras work you may go up or down. It is a difficult number to manage. It is not like teachers because you may be required to pick up a special education para. We do have the contingency funds, right the… Mark Conrad We have a special revenue fund where we occasionally can pick up an additional position. This year I think we’ve only picked up 2 or 3 additional positions through our special revenue fund, and they are temporary positions for a year and then we go back and re-evaluate. This is an area where years past we have had some difficulty managing costs, but we’ve worked really hard to maintain consistent numbers so as we look towards next year, we’ve basically budgeted the same number of paraprofessionals we have this year, which is actually down 10 positions from where we were a year ago, and we would anticipate maintaining that number, pretty close to that number, and if we need to pick up the difference we will pick it up through our special revenue funds. Chairman Deane The educational benefits that you have here? Robert Hallowell Did you want me to step through it? Chairman Deane Why don’t you walk down, I’m just looking at the changes that were made. Robert Hallowell So first let me note we’ve tried to note off to the left where it says contract sections so it will tell you, so it says line number and then next to it is the contract section that is related to that cost item. The proposal is a 2% increase each year of the contract. Holidays did not change. There is a change in the contract as to which holidays they get, and I can explain that later, but there is no change in the number of holidays that are received. So the only increase here is relative to the increase in salary for those years. The steps are frozen for the two years of the contract. The 7:5(1) for a number of years there has been an item in the contract that allowed us to bring paras in for an additional day prior to the school year. We used that in last year’s budget so it is included here in the base budget. It is not solidified that we will require them to come in the day before. I’ve just listed it here for completeness. Additional hours; again there have been no changes to how that works so it is just the increase in pay. This line 10, the 7:5 (8), one of the topics of discussion in our negotiations was the fact that there is a fair amount of paperwork for paras to do, and paras unlike teachers, they are there for 6.5 hours and they are working their 6.5 hours so they don’t have any additional time to sit down and catch up on paperwork if they need to. Budget Review – 05/03/12 Page 5 Mark Conrad A lot of that 30 minutes per week; when we talk about paperwork much of that is related to the Medicaid billing. For that time of completing that paperwork they represent a proportion of the million dollars we bring in a year in Medicaid revenue. I think we needed to point that out because they are having difficulty meeting their paperwork requirements for the Medicaid billing process. They actually, although I don’t know the proportion of that million reflected as paraprofessional hours, it is a significant portion so they are really bringing money back into the district for that half hour of catching up on paperwork. Chairman Deane That 30 minutes is… Robert Hallowell Is only in the second year of the contract. Chairman Deane Is in the second year of the contract. And how was that added to the, that is added to the base as an hourly amount or additional hours worked? Robert Hallowell They would get paid the extra half hour if …it is not required that they work it so it is with their Principal deciding whether they want to. I don’t know how many will end up taking it. That is the full cost of everybody working the additional 30 minutes. Chairman Deane So that is just something that is some of them may have time to do it outside of this additional 30 minutes and some may choose not to do it? Mark Conrad I think some may have paperwork requirements that others don’t have. For example some of the paraprofessionals are Kindergarten paraprofessionals; they would not have the paperwork requirements. Some special education paraprofessionals are not billing for Medicaid, others are. They may be supporting tracking of information relative to the IEP such as certain rates or certain kinds of behaviors in some of our intensive needs classrooms. This is a way of recognizing the different needs of paraprofessionals to maintain paperwork requirements and giving them, with their Principal, the flexibility of determining who needs to use that. As Mr. Hallowell said, this would be a worse case scenario that we wouldn’t expect to reach. Robert Hallowell If you have your copy of the marked up contract it would be page 19 near the bottom of the page is that section that is going to change. Budget Review – 05/03/12 Page 6 Chairman Deane The $107,599 that is the sum total of 371 paras working an extra 30 minutes per week times the number of weeks in the school year. Robert Hallowell Right. Chairman Deane And that is the worst case scenario. You don’t have any data that…that kind of skews that increase percentage that is part of that 3.59% wouldn’t it? Say you only used half of that. Robert Hallowell I tend to, when we do these costing sheets to air on the side of worst case scenario. If you look at that section there is the paperwork for Medicaid, there are also many communications that go to paras that sort of require them to have access to a computer and a number of our paras do not have access to a computer at home and so this was also a way for them to have time to do that sort of catching up on what the district is doing and what things they should be paying attention to. There may be instances where there may be a Kindergarten para or a group of paras that want to work that extra time, and they would work with their Principal to decide whether that was appropriate or not. I think we should stick with the higher number and if it is lower then we can all be relieved later on. Again, this entire contract is not an outrageous sum of money, and this number is not that large a number either. Chairman Deane I don’t think anybody is debating that. I’m just trying to understand the 30 minutes per week. If you look at he bureaucracy that government tends to generate, and I guess, and I’m not sure how each para has the responsibilities of each student or more than one student, you would think with the paperwork that is required in more instances than one it takes you half an hour just to try to figure out what page you are on never mind start filling it out for reimbursement. Robert Hallowell This is paperwork that they are familiar with it is paperwork that they work with all the time. It is just a matter of you want to be timely because we get reimbursed in Medicaid when we present data that certain activities have taken place so if we’re two months behind in filling paperwork we’re not going to get reimbursed for that student until we can prove that those services were provided. While it is not reflected…I think we will get money faster by having this. There is a line in here that we didn’t have before, which is that Medicaid forms should be filled out within one week so it gives us a criteria to try to get them to get them in fast. Chairman Deane Is that part of that 7… Budget Review – 05/03/12 Page 7 Robert Hallowell Yes page 19. It is the last line of that section 8. Chairman Deane That is not a cost item though. We can only discuss cost items. Robert Hallowell You asked a question about Medicaid, I was merely trying to answer the question. Chairman Deane Yeah I know, I probably shouldn’t have. Alderman Melizzi-Golja Just in terms of this number and worst case scenario; I think in one of our last discussions a comment was made that the number of students you had who had more intensive needs was also increasing, and as I look through the contract I’ve noticed you have more clearly defined what a paraprofessional serving intensive needs students does, and I would assume that those individuals will, 99% of them, will be billing Medicaid. I would think that as we move out into FY14 you may actually have more of those people than you have now if our population continues to grow as you have seen in the past. Mark Conrad It grows, but it grows in the margin each year. But again this is the worst case scenario so it is not likely to be this full sum. But we can expect that to continue to grow over time. Alderman Donchess Thank you Mr. Chair. You said there are 371 paras? Robert Hallowell FTEs. Alderman Donchess Pardon? Robert Hallowell FTEs, Full Time Equivalents so there may be half-time paras so more than 2 people. Alderman Donchess I was looking on page 25 showing the pay scale. Budget Review – 05/03/12 Page 8 Robert Hallowell I take that back Alderman Donchess. It says number of employees here. I thought on our analysis we had number of FTEs. So the FTEs is lower than the 371. I think it is 352. Alderman Donchess Looking at page 27 it shows the pay scale. Robert Hallowell Are you on the clean copy or… Alderman Melizzi-Golja The clean copy. Robert Hallowell I don’t have the clean copy so tell me where you are at. Alderman Donchess The pay scale. What is the median para; how many years experience does the median para have roughly? Is it middle of the scale here or 15 years or… Robert Hallowell There is a mix. We have a number that are at the high end of the scale. I don’t have a breakdown off the top of my head. Alderman Donchess And how many hours does a para typically work? Mark Conrad Typically it would be 30 hours a week. There are some who work 35 hours a week depending upon which grade level they are working at and the program of the student, but typically they are 30 hours a week. Alderman Donchess Does the para get a health… Mark Conrad I’m sorry 32 hours a week? Chairman Deane Budget Review – 05/03/12 Page 9 Mr. Sherman if you have some pertinent information come on over here and take a seat. If you can answer some of these questions it would be more than helpful. Robert Hallowell I never like to let him sit down, he never gets up. Robert Sherman I have a member of our negotiating team here and… Chairman Deane If she can answer the questions she is more than welcome to come up and help if she would like. Robert Sherman She said as far as the range it is 5-7 years is probably where the concentration is. Chairman Deane Thank you. Robert Hallowell My impression is that there used to be more of a …we had a lot of para turnover in the first few years, and again because of the economy, I think that happens less. It is a very difficult job to do and I think you can clearly tell it is not a very well paying job for the most part so we used to get a lot of turn and we get less of that now. You will see when you look at the longevity line that number goes up because a group of paras are moving into longer periods of time where they are getting additional longevity. It is getting to be a more seasoned group of paraprofessionals. Alderman Donchess Does the paraprofessional get a healthcare benefit? Robert Hallowell Yes. They don’t get the same benefit that most of the other unions have. It is if you read through, and that has not changed in this contract except for one exception, they get the same healthcare except it is for a single person and their percentages are varied based on how many years of experience they have in the district. Chairman Deane That is on page 11. Robert Hallowell So from 1-4 years the City pays 65%, from 5-9 the City pays 70% and 10 or more years they pay 80%. Again, Budget Review – 05/03/12 Page 10 it is only on the single person plan so if they want to get a two person plan or a family plan they are credited that percentage of their single plan towards the more expensive plan. Alderman Donchess Were they required to make a concession on this contract? Robert Hallowell No. So the changes that were made were in terms of the deductibles so those all match; they did match the teachers’ contract previously and now they match what the rest of the City has decided to do. I will point out that for paras and teachers when you look at the pharmacy benefit, this pharmacy benefit is actually a benefit to them because it is actually lower rates than what they were paying prior to that. But getting everybody on the same plan assists the City. Alderman Donchess In terms of the changes in the deductibles and the co-pays and everything that you mentioned, do you have an estimate as to how much that costs an average para during the course of the year; the increase that was agreed to here? Robert Hallowell I don’t think an average para would be the right way to phrase it because there are only about 30% of the paras that actually take healthcare at any level. For those individual paras I don’t suspect the cost would be any different than what it was for any of the other unions, but I don’t know that number off the top of my head. Mark Conrad I think we have 64 overall who take health insurance and only 11 of those take a two person or family plan, the remaining just take the individual plan. Robert Hallowell I think Alderman Donchess is asking you’ve got these deductibles that they are now going to pay, what would be the impact per para. Chairman Deane It is almost like similar to the custodians contract where they had an increased contribution to their healthcare and their pay increase ended up being a negative. Robert Hallowell So you can’t look at healthcare in isolation because if you look at their salary increase it is a 2%. This was all part of our discussion. They agreed to keep their healthcare to make it match what the City wanted in terms of deductibles and co-pays, to not change the percentages. We did, in the second year of the contract, right now paras when they get hired they have to wait a year before they can even get healthcare and in the second year of the contract we put into the contract that that would go away so now just like every other employee of the City in the second year of the contract, when they get hired they will be covered as soon as they start Budget Review – 05/03/12 Page 11 paying their premiums. It is all a balancing act when you are doing negotiations. That is why the salary increase is what it is, that is where the half hour comes from because that is a way to give them a salary increase but also provide a service back to the City for that increase. So you get the 2%, in the second year of the contract you’ve got that extra half hour that may be available for those who want to take advantage of it. I don’t think we should be looking in isolation and saying okay what did they get for this. It is a negotiation so this is what we all got; we got a contract that we all agreed to. Alderman Donchess But in terms of the para who takes healthcare, is that person given the 2% raise and given the increase in cost, going to suffer an income reduction if you balance those two things out? Mark Conrad … audio inaudible… we’ve calculated that. Robert Hallowell Was that calculated in terms of the…I don’t know that that was calculated prior. We didn’t calculate it. There may be a number that risk assessment has for that. Alderman Donchess Well the reason I ask the question, of course this is just my own view, but the paras perform an important job, they don’t make a lot of money, and to me it is not right to ask people who work this hard and make this little money to take a net pay cut as a result of some kind of objectives the City has with respect to higher paid employees. It is one thing for $100,000 employee or even a $60,000 employee to pay more for healthcare, but when you are paying someone $14 an hour for 30 hours a week, not really even enough to live on, and they are performing this sort of essential function in Nashua schools, I question whether it makes sense to make them take a pay reduction even for one year. That is why I asked the question. Robert Hallowell I don’t have the number off the top of my head. Certainly if there were a para that needed to pay the $500 deductible for inpatient, whichever the one the $500 deductible is, that would be more than they are going to get in an increase. But that is certainly not the average and for the most part I would guess that probably less than 20% of all of the employees in the City end up paying that $25 or $500 deductible. You then also have to look as I said… Alderman Donchess What do you mean… Robert Hallowell I want to answer the question because the pharmacy benefit based on the calculations that we did when we were doing the teachers’ union, is a benefit. If you are going to use healthcare the pharmacy benefit is far more likely to be the thing you are going to use and that is actually a reduction from what they were paying. Budget Review – 05/03/12 Page 12 Alderman Donchess How much of a reduction? Robert Hallowell I would have to go back and look at my figures. It was on average it was a few dollars per prescription. Alderman Donchess And I didn’t really mean to interrupt you; I was just trying to ask a follow-up question. You said that less than 20% of the employees in the City would pay the deductible. That point I don’t follow what you’re… Robert Hallowell I’m giving an opinion, which is just from research that I’ve done on the City healthcare plan in the past. Not everybody has to do these kinds of services in a given year so I’m just saying in a given year I would guess maybe less than 20% of the employees actually end up paying that $250 or $500 deductible because you don’t need those services. Many people go all year long without going to see the doctor. Alderman Donchess Does the deductible apply to any doctor’s visit or what is the deductible for? Robert Hallowell No the deductible applies for inpatient hospitalization or surgery at a hospital surgical care center. Alderman Donchess What page of the contract are you on? Robert Hallowell Well it is page 13 on mine, but I have the marked up copy. It is the second page of the health benefits, 5.3. Mark Conrad It would be page 12 of the clean copy. Robert Hallowell It’s got A, B, C, D, those are the changes. In addition, when you look at the co-pays the Healthcare Act has required that we not collect co-pays for medical visits that are routine care so if you go in for a physical you don’t get charged a co-pay. While that co-pay increases the net is not easily calculated, let’s put it that way because no one has done it before. Alderman Donchess Alright. Well it sounds like there is not great changes in the healthcare costs because the percentages have Budget Review – 05/03/12 Page 13 not changed. I still have concern that for very low level, when I say low level I mean low pay employees, that we would be forcing them to take a pay reduction as a result of the City’s bargaining position. Chairman Deane Would you like to continue Mr. Hallowell? Robert Hallowell If you go to lines 16-20 those are longevity, the No Child Left Behind stipend didn’t change, severance hasn’t changed. So then you get down to committee meetings, para mentor program, and educational benefits and you will see that two of those are zeroed out and the educational benefits dropped from $20,000 to $8,000. One of the things that we went into this negotiation as the school district was to be able to get more control from a management perspective, and so there are two pieces that are important; one is there were three different committees that were organizing what kind of professional development paras were going to do, and while we are going to move forward with the administration will come up with a plan in advance of the school year, which will lay out specific paraprofessional development. A lot of times what would have been done in the past is we have these workshop days where we do professional development and there would be professional development brought in for teachers and we would tell the paras they had to go to that. That is not a very effective way to train a para because they are not doing the same things a teacher is doing. So while there may be some times where we want the para to go to that same teacher training because it does overlap, we have agreed that, though not in the contract, we have agreed that the administration will take half of those days and provide professional development for the paraprofessionals and they will work with the paraprofessional staff to decide what that is. That allowed us to remove these constraints in the contract that we’re funding these various committees. So there is now just one committee, and I forget what it ended up being… Mark Conrad Professional development. Robert Hallowell So it was a professional development committee. So there is still a committee but the resources are sort of combined into all of the funds we already use for providing professional development throughout the district whether it be teacher or para or secretaries for that matter. Chairman Deane So that $8,000 is just a portion/ Robert Hallowell The $8,000 that is left, is that what you mean? Robert Hallowell Yeah. Budget Review – 05/03/12 Page 14 Robert Hallowell The $8,000 that is left is a tuition benefit if they were to take classes. Mark Conrad If I could just add to that; it doesn’t mean we will be providing less professional development for paraprofessionals, it simply means it is not stipulated through the contract. We’ve maintained our allowance in the budget for that, but it is not part of the contract requirement. Robert Hallowell I just want to go back to the longevity line. So you can see that that increases, and as I said that assumes that all of the paras we have today will continue with us for the next two years, which may be true. Again, it is a high end number, which is I think typically what we do in all of these contract negotiations for things like longevity. Chairman Deane Who created this financial analysis? Robert Hallowell This is what we worked with when we were in the negotiation. Chairman Deane But who created this? Mr. Griffin? Robert Hallowell No. A combination of myself, Mr. Donovan, and Dana O’Gara. Mark Conrad But I believe Mr. Griffin has reviewed it for accuracy. Robert Hallowell Yes. Mark Conrad And to make sure he is in agreement with it. Chairman Deane And he was? Budget Review – 05/03/12 Page 15 Mark Conrad As far as I know. Robert Hallowell I don’t think it would be on your agenda if he wasn’t. Chairman Deane You can put anything on a piece of legislation; it doesn’t necessarily have to be correct. Mark Conrad Once we work up the cost sheets we typically coordinate closely with the Chief Financial Officer in that process so all of the cost sheets that have come before you on the contracts have been reviewed by Mr. Griffin, and I think he is in agreement with the costs as they have been presented. Chairman Deane Yeah we put that legislation in a while ago that gave you folks the opportunity so that everybody is on the same page. Mark Conrad The process has worked very well. Chairman Deane Good. That is good to hear. Robert Hallowell The one thing that I did request…so you basically see everything that costs something in this contract where I think the way it has been stipulated in the past is if a cost didn’t change you didn’t need to include it in your costing sheet, and in my mind if it is a cost in the contract it ought to show up on this sheet… Chairman Deane I agree with you. Robert Hallowell …so you see some things that don’t change. I insisted that they be left in there so that we could see what the total cost of the contract is. Chairman Deane That is a very good point. It should be there. That is what we’re approving, as it states in the title, approving the cost items so they should all be there. Budget Review – 05/03/12 Page 16 Robert Hallowell So under insurance benefits, so the first line on line 38 what you see is the total cost, which assumes an 11% increase per year in the healthcare expenditures so that is the total cost of providing healthcare to the paras then the next line is the contributions that the paras make towards that service, that is why that is a negative number. The average of 37% is because they are all paying varying rates plus some of them because it is a single plan and they may be buying a two person or a family plan, it is a smaller percentage so that is why that number isn’t a round number. They agreed to the plan design changes, which this is the same figure that was used in doing the other contracts in terms of healthcare expenditures and what those plan design changes mean to the City. You see an adding of $59,000 in FY14 when you eliminate the one year waiting period. We don’t anticipate that any higher percentage of paras in that first year will take healthcare so the cost you see there is 30% of those first year paras will take healthcare and that is how you get that $59,000 number. Chairman Deane This whole area is nothing but assumptions right? Robert Hallowell Sorry what? Chairman Deane This whole area you just discussed is nothing but assumptions. Robert Hallowell Yes that is true. Chairman Deane That is all it is. Robert Hallowell I will point out that in the last paraprofessionals contract when it was estimated how many more paras would take healthcare because their percentages had increased, I think it was estimated that we would be paying almost a million dollars in healthcare expenses, and you can see from this it is $730,000 so yes it is an estimate. The only thing we’re talking about here is how many first year paras, so there are not that many first year paras, would choose to take healthcare, and it seems reasonable to assume they would take it in the same percent as all other paras take it in. I think it is a very low risk number. Chairman Deane Where did you get the 11% increase? Budget Review – 05/03/12 Page 17 Robert Hallowell From the City. Chairman Deane So that is good to see; that is their projection. Robert Hallowell I believe that is the same number that was in the teachers’ contract and the other contracts that we’ve brought forward. Mark Conrad It was. Chairman Deane Then you are on to dental. Robert Hallowell Dental insurance, so there is no increase for FY13 and while we don’t know, we’re assuming a 3% increase for FY14, which was given to us by the City. There is no life insurance, short-term disability, or long-term disability. So then you see the total cost there. Chairman Deane I don’t know how these dental people make any money unless people get the insurance and then don’t use it. When you look at the benefit that it offers when you go to use it 3 or 4 times a year, the cost of the cleanings exceeds the premium. Robert Hallowell I agree. Alderman Donchess In that same area, what is the significance of line 40, less plan design changes? Robert Hallowell So because they agreed to the changes in the co-pays and the emergency room visit and there is also language in here that allows the City to, we’re not naming the healthcare provider, the City working with, I forget the name of the company that they have working with them for, WBS? Mark Conrad Yeah. Budget Review – 05/03/12 Page 18 Robert Hallowell Workplace Benefit Solutions from Manchester, they had come up with an estimate of what that…so it is not just a matter of somebody is paying more, it is also that because they know that an emergency room visit is $100 you are not going to frivolously go to the emergency room to get some kind of service, and so there is a cost aversion savings in addition, and then there is I think built into that number also is the because you are not naming the carrier, Blue Cross might actually bid for our services instead of just knowing that they are going to get it because they are in the contract. Mark Conrad That is the same number we used on our other contracts as well. Same percentage for assumption of savings. Chairman Deane So we’ve gone through insurance. We have a total cost $7,953,930 to $8,085,110 to $8,477,812. Are there any other questions? Seeing none, the motion on the floor by Alderman Dowd is to recommend final passage. MOTION CARRIED GENERAL DISCUSSION - None PUBLIC COMMENT Robert Sherman, 7C Taggart Drive I thank this committee. Can I ask you Dave when you think this will be brought before the full Board of Aldermen and voted upon? Chairman Deane Unless Alderman McCarthy has it brought in under suspension next Tuesday, it would probably be the following full Board meeting. Usually we like to do the minutes so they are prepared and whatnot and then it appears on the agenda. Tomorrow is Friday, I don’t know… Robert Sherman If that indeed could be done so therefore because right now there is the open enrollment period and therefore, and I know health insurance is taken out a month in advance but just that therefore…as soon as we can get this approved that therefore then we can get the healthcare effective as of July the 1st. Chairman Deane So when does open enrollment close? Robert Sherman That is going on right now. Do you want to explain Mark/ Budget Review – 05/03/12 Page 19 Mark Conrad st Open enrollment ends in another week or two, but the issue is this; for the July 1 beginning of health insurance coverage the City, for all groups, actually starts withholding the employee’s share a month in st advance so in June we will be withholding at the new rates for the July 1 kick-in of the health insurance provisions. In order to avoid having to go through two open enrollment periods, which creates a lot of work on the City side, we’ve asked paraprofessionals to note whether their election was contingent upon the passage of the contract so it will really simplify it if we can get approval of the contract prior to the end of May so when we begin withholding in June we know it is the right number. If it gets to a second meeting in May I think that still works. Alderman Dowd There is the 22nd. Mark Conrad If it gets to the second meeting that would still work as long as it is in May prior to the June 1st date. Chairman Deane We have then a 7 day period after that where it can either be signed into law, allowed to go into law without a signature, or vetoed. Mark Conrad I understand that. Certainly if it passes the Board of Aldermen it is much more likely that it will go through and I think we can work with that. Chairman Deane Are you looking for this to appear on next Tuesday’s agenda or is the following meeting, will that suffice? Mark Conrad Alderman Dowd did you say the second meeting would be May 22nd? Alderman Pressly 22nd. Mark Conrad I think we could work within that because then even the 7 day period still keeps us within the month of May. As long as we are within the month of May I think we can work with that. Robert Sherman Where that might not work if therefore the Mayor on the 7th day vetoes this and then you are not going to be Budget Review – 05/03/12 Page 20 able to probably get the Board of Aldermen back to override the veto as opposed to if we took it up this coming Tuesday is then you do have the time for the process. Mark Conrad We can’t speak for the Mayor… Robert Sherman No, and I don’t want to speak for the Mayor… Mark Conrad …but I think our conversation… Robert Sherman …either, but I just wanted to make sure… Chairman Deane Well you are just factoring in scenarios that exist that is all you are doing. Robert Sherman That’s right. Mark Conrad Personally I think May 22nd would be sufficient; even with the 7 day period it gets you to the end of May and by June 1st we would understand what the position of the City is. Alderman Pressly I do believe we have a shortage of staff at the moment so the chance of the minutes being typed and ready is very slim. Chairman Deane I sit through Joint Special School Building Committees where they continually do oral reports and then approve all of these invoices so… Alderman Pressly Well the 22nd if it is approved and 7 days is the 29th so you are within that timeframe. Chairman Deane But being the only thing on the agenda and only being into this for about 40 minutes or so I think Sue could probably bang out those minutes. I can ask her. I will ask her. Budget Review – 05/03/12 Page 21 Alderman Pressly You know that Dawn is not available right now. Chairman Deane I can ask her. REMARKS BY THE ALDERMEN - None ADJOURNMENT MOTION BY ALDERMAN DOWD TO ADJOURN MOTION CARRIED The meeting was declared closed at 7:47 p.m. Alderman Mary Ann Melizzi-Golja Committee Clerk