The health insurance concerns were brought up at the start of the meeting during public comment.
The council and its employees unions currently are in negotiations, employees noted during their comments, and the proposal to shift an increasing amount of health insurance premiums to staff and retirees is one of the proposals on the table.
Beginning last year, the city began requiring employees to pay 12 percent of their health insurance costs, but a small, $0.60 per hour raise for employees helped offset some of that increase, as Lake County News has reported.
However, employees at the meeting Tuesday said they're being asked to pick up another 16 percent that's being required by the insurance company, and which the city wants to pass on to employees and retirees.
Victoria Timm, whose husband Craig works for the city's Public Works Department, told the council that requiring an additional $200 contribution, besides the $250 deductibles per family member, was “a travesty,” and she suggested other insurance companies needed to be investigated.
Engineering technician Brian Everhart told the council that he worked for the county for 13 years, with his health insurance premium portion rising from $79 per month out of pocket up to $731 per month by the time he left for the job with Lakeport.
He took a pay cut to work with the city, but he said it balanced out because he didn't have to pay the health insurance portion any more.
Because of the city's decision to require the 12 percent share from employees, Everhart said he has had to pay $150 a month, and now the city wants to add $200 on top of that.
“I see the same thing happening here that happened with the county,” Everhart said.
He said in his last five years with the county, he trained about 11 planners who ended up leaving because they didn't want to pay so much for insurance. Everhart suggested that same kind of costly process of training employees only to lose them could happen at the city.
Everhart suggested the city needed to find a better way to fix the budget. “Making us pay for this benefit is immense for us.”
City Building Official Tom Carlton said he joined the city, in part, due to the benefits. He pointed out that last year employees made an effort to work with the city by agreeing to furlough days and starting to pay a portion of their benefits.
But absorbing the 16-percent increase from Blue Cross “represents a much larger increase proportionally for city employees,” he said, asking the council to reconsider and come to a more equitable solution.
Trisha Franco, who has worked for the city for 15 and a half years, said she had been asked to speak not just on behalf of employees but their families.
Franco said the city and the employees' association currently are in negotiations, and the association wanted to ask the council in a public forum not to shift the 16 percent increase to employees.
“You have a balanced budget. You have a half million dollar surplus,” she said, adding, “Most of your employees no longer have a balanced budget because of the economy.”
Franco said three city employees have so far lost their homes due to the economy, and are struggling to pay rent. The $350 they're being asked to pay out of pocket for health insurance “does not fit the promise that we were given when we were hired years ago, that the city would pay our benefits,” she said.
A year ago, Franco's husband was forced into permanent disability, her son is a disabled veteran with post traumatic stress disorder who lives with her, and her son-in-law was laid off a year ago, with she and her husband taking over their son-in-law's and daughter's mortgage so their grandsons would have a place to live.
“As a group the association is shocked that the city council is even considering shifting the full burden of this cost to employees,” said Franco, questioning if City Attorney Steve Brookes and City Manager Margaret Silveira were amenable to the plan.
Bob Barthel, who retired from the Public Works Department, has two disabled sons on the health insurance plan, and he recently received a letter about the health insurance with “this really huge number.”
When he took the city's “golden handshake” retirement offer, Barthel said Brookes and Finance Director Janet Tavernier had guaranteed his health benefits and those of his sons would be paid, which he said made it possible for him to retire early.
He said employees and retirees also need to contribute a little bit, but asked, “What is the city's deficit? Is there a deficit? I don't think so.”
Barthel asked where the money went that the city saved through early retirements like his, which they followed by not filling the jobs vacated by the golden handshakes.
He's now having to pay $817 a month, about 33 percent of his monthly retirement, for his portion of the health insurance. Barthel said he went out and got another job but was laid off, and pointed out that there aren't a lot of jobs out there.
His wife and sons couldn't attend the Tuesday meeting because they are at UC Davis Medical Center, where his sons were having medical procedures. Barthel said they wished they could have been there so the council would have to look them in the eyes and tell them “your benefits are written in the sand.”
City employee Rocky Zimmerman said he doesn't have benefits through the city but through his wife's job at the hospital. He asked what happened to that savings for the city.
Zimmerman said he now wants the golden handshake as well, which he couldn't take previously.
He said he wanted out, and wasn't happy with the way the city was treating its employees.
“You guys try to balance your budget on your employees, and I'm ashamed of it, and I think you all should be too,” he said.
City Planning Services Manager Andrew Britton, employed with the city since 1989, suggested many people remember when Anthem Blue Cross announced earlier in the year a 39-percent increase for coverage.
But he said that 39-percent increase pales in comparison to the 134-percent increase proposed for city employees.
“It's difficult to understand how or why the council believes that this is an equitable or fair solution to the premium increase,” said Britton.
Britton suggested the health insurance increases will have a tremendous impact on his fellow employees and their families. He said his wife has been out of work since June of 2009, and her unemployment benefits have run out.
He asked the council to maintain employees' existing 12-percent health insurance ratio. “We're comfortable with that number.”
City employees will still face an increase, but it would at least be proportional, said Britton, who was applauded by fellow employees.
Comment on the health insurance issue wrapped up with Britton, and the council was not able to discuss the matter in the open portion of the meeting, as it was not agendized. However, a closed session was planned to discuss labor negotiations with the Lakeport Employees Association and Lakeport Police Officers Association.
In other business, the council approved Ordinance No. 880 relating to the establishment of emergency shelters, approved owner participation agreements between the redevelopment agency and David and Paula Borg and Jan and Barry Parkinson for improvements along Main Street, awarded the South Main Street pedestrian Improvement Project to North Bay Construction Inc. and selected delegates for the League of California Cities conference.
Council members also received the annual report on the general plan and housing development, and directed staff to forward the documents to the state.
They tabled consideration of a two-hour parking area along the west side of the street from Campbell Lane to Industrial Avenue and accepted a credit card policy that created guidelines for how city employees can use credit cards.
They also appointed Councilmen Roy Parmentier and Bob Rumfelt to sit on a subcommittee that includes Silveira, Lakeport Unified Superintendent Erin Hagberg and school district board members. The group will meet at least quarterly on an ongoing basis. Council member Suzanne Lyons, who had wanted to sit on the subcommittee, was the lone dissenter in the vote.
E-mail Elizabeth Larson at
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