Frozen funds could ease burn of rising premiums

Jenny Marder

Councilman Gil Coerper will urge his fellow council members on Monday

to use a chunk of money set aside for four vacant positions and

cancel the annual audit of a city department to help pay for city

employees’ health care.

City officials say the only way the city can afford to help

employees pay for rising health insurance would be by cutting

existing programs or positions.

So that is what Coerper is suggesting.

Each year, the city audits one department. This year, the library

is slated for review. Coerper wants to put that $100,000 toward the

cost of rising heath care. He also wants to take the $83,000 the city

anticipates it will save on county animal care services this year and

put that in the benefits pot.

The frozen positions -- a senior administrative analyst position,

a maintenance service worker from Public Works, an administrative

aide from Community Services and a code enforcement officer from the

Planning Department -- would make up the rest of the $470,000 that he

would like to put toward the cause.

City administrators have other plans for the money, however. The

city has been trying to anticipate future losses, such as the

possibility that the state won’t “backfill” or replace millions that

the city lost when the vehicle license fee was rolled back last

month.

“The money was appropriated, but was not going to be spent,” City

Administrator Ray Silver said. “We plan to leave everything we can

frozen in the state budget.”

The city, which pays $7 million into employee benefits, wants

employees to shoulder the cost of the rise in heath-care costs.

Employees who choose the city’s point-of service plan, or PPO,

could pay as much as $343 per month for a plan that now costs $62 per

month. Those who sign up for the HMO will see little to increase in

cost.

Employees say the PPO increase is unreasonable, and many union

members took turns pleading their case at the last council meeting,

beseeching the city to shoulder some of the increase and to provide

more options on health providers.

Their pleas reached Coerper, a former police officer.

“The employees are what make the city, it’s not the manager,”

Coerper said. “It’s those folks that work hard, and I feel that we

should work with employees and try to do what we can.”

Officials say the city, which has already sliced $11.5 million

from its budget, can’t absorb the rising costs, either. The only way

to come up with additional revenue is to cut existing positions or

programs, Assistant City Administrator Bill Workman said.

“Right now, the issue is whether or not there’s going to be

additional money to help contribute to the skyrocketing cost of

healthcare,” Workman said. “Barring some unknown source of revenue,

the only way that you can generate funding for a new project,

program, or for health care is to cut existing expenses.”

Councilwoman Connie Boardman is still undecided on the issue, but

said she’s concerned that the city needs to keep the money in

reserve.

“This means we won’t have that money later if we need it,”

Boardman said.

As a professor of biology and anatomy at Cerritos College,

Boardman is also being hit by rising health insurance costs.

“We are definitely going to pay more, and it’s going to happen

statewide,” she said. “It’s not that I don’t have sympathy for [the

city employees] -- I wish we could offer them more ... but we’re

looking at the city’s financial health overall, and we’re worried

about the cuts coming down in the future from the state and other

lawsuits.”

Coerper called this proposal his “small way of trying to help the

folks out.”

“I thought, what can we do for the employees? as I was sitting up

on the dais,” he said. “I thought, how can we help the employees? We

can’t do it all, but we can do a parcel.”

The City Council will vote on Coerper’s proposal at the next City

Council meeting, scheduled for 7 p.m. in the council chambers.

* JENNY MARDER covers City Hall. She can be reached at (714)

965-7173 or by e-mail at [email protected].