A discussion about health insurance policies for Iola city employees took a heated turn Monday when a city council member accused the city’s human resources manager of altering the policy without authorization.
At issue is the city’s policy affecting premiums retirees pay to remain enrolled in health insurance plans.
A retiree pays $302.50 a month for single-member plans and $525.50 for families, much lower than what the city’s personnel policy handbook says should be paid.
If the handbook were to be followed, retirees would pay 110 percent of the current premium cost, or about $461 a month for singles and $928.50 for family plans.
There also is an issue for current employees enrolled in family plans.
As a benefit, the city pays each employee the equivalent of a single employee’s monthly premiums, tabbed in 2011 at $255. Employees with family insurance plans pay an additional $250. However, the city’s costs were pegged by Blue Cross Blue Shield at $566 for each employee with a family plan, a difference of $61.
Council member Scott Stewart — a former city employee — noted that former city commissioners had agreed to absorb those extra costs. The commission worked with Iola’s City Employee Task Force to develop the plan.
But what councilmen cannot find is how former commissioners
established the $302.50 and $525.50 premiums for retirees.
That led to a testy exchange between Councilman Ken Rowe and Human Resources Manager Ken Hunt.
Rowe said the policy was changed by Hunt without approval by the council or the prior city commission.
“When I asked you about this once before, you showed me one document one day that said that this was the authority that you had to change that in the personnel policy, and it didn’t state that at all,” Rowe told Hunt. “Two days later, you gave me another document.”
Hunt denied Rowe’s allegation.
“What I’d like you to do is show us documents that show where you have the authority to make those changes in the personnel manual,” Rowe pressed further. “What we have found out — what several of us council people have found out through some investigation — is that it appears you have made some changes to the personnel policy without any authority to do so.
“That is absolutely not true,” Hunt replied.
HUNT TOLD the Register he took his directives when figuring premiums from city commissioners when they were in charge. Those charges were based on recommendations by Iola’s employee task force.
Others in the audience at Monday’s meeting agreed with Hunt’s version.
