10-11-2011 ERMU MIN - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

Page 2 Regular meeting of the Elk River Municipal Utilities Commission October 11, 2011 John Dietz informed Commissioners and staff that at the City Council meetings there is an open mike at the beginning of the meeting. Troy Adams responded it could be added. 4.1 Uadate on Power Supply Options /Resource Plannins Troy Adams updated the Commissioners on the Power Supply opportunities, and the developments since the last update. CMMPA is asking for a letter of intent commitment from ERMU. Troy Adams asked for approval to go ahead with the confidentiality contract to be able to share more information and numbers. Consensus was to go ahead. John Dietz voiced his concern of spending more money with CMMPA and would like to check out other entities. Discussion followed. 5.1 Review and Consider Insurance Options and Renewal ERMU's insurance broker has information on Long Term Care insurance. This is an insurance that is an important component of retirement planning and yet is often not recognized unless one has been involved with family members needing this care. Gary Marx of LTC Financial and Lynn Peterson of David Martin Agency gave a presentation to the Commissioners on a Long Term Care (LTC) plan for employees. Consensus was to have a meeting and get staffs opinion to see if there is any interest before deciding to go forward. ERMU has been notified that the health insurance plan rate will decrease by 9.5%. There is consideration of offering a Health Savings Account (HSA) plan alongside the cunent 100% Coverage Aware Gold (AG) plan. Theresa Slominski reviewed the HSA plan with the $2,400 annual deductible. Discussion followed regazding the pros and cons of offering this optional insurance. John Dietz felt it should be one plan or the other, not both. He went on to say that the employees have a Cadillac plan right now and didn't think the employees would want to change that There was further discussion regarding the stability of the existing plan if there were fewer employees on it. John Dietz said he couldn't see offering two plans, Daryl Thompson agreed. Al Nadeau said he could not vote for or against right now, he would want more information to base his decision. The HSA plan will not be considered at this time due to lack of motion. 5.2 Review Wade Survey and Recommendations For the past two decades with the exception of 2009-2011, ERMU has used a survey of a predetemvned seven neighboring utilities to gauge the industry for purposes of compensation comparison. For ease of comparing, the lineperson position has typically been used as the benchmark because of job duties, and position requirements are fairly consistent from one utility to another. The utilities that have been used have been agreed upon because of their proximity to ERMU. These are the utilities in which ERMU is in direct labor competition with and their employees would generally experience similaz costs of living.