Friday, May 8, 2009
Camden County faces more and deeper budget cuts.
http://www.tribune-georgian.com/articles/2009/05/08/news/top_stories/1topstory5.8.txt
This tells me that (as if I didn't already know) that the late Terrible Troika's politically self-serving millage rate cuts in years past just prior to their being up for re-election were way too deep. That, and they should never have raided the surplus fund. Note that of the sitting commissioners, Steve Berry alone warned them repeatedly on both counts.
Clearly, there needs to be a millage rate increase at some point in the not too distant future to correct the errors and excesses of the past. Let's hope that when that time comes, the majority of the commissioners at that time have the political courage to vote the right way, re-election consequences be damned!
Update: Saturday, 5/9 @ 0947 HRS.
Alas, there is obviously no shortage of would-be elected officials who will continue to have no regard for the intelligence of the electorate and continue to tell the "watch my lips" lie to get elected. Witness: http://www.topix.com/forum/city/kingsland-ga/TTUVO3QEQPIUNC1V1
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20 comments:
Camden County's tax problem is too many chiefs and not enought indians. The commissioners office has way too many employees with Titles and high salaries. Everyone there has some "top Title" that comes with an assistant, and the assistant has an assistant. Clean house in that office and we would all see a big cut in the budget.
I will second that motion!!
They need to trim the fat in the County and Sheriff Department. If any of them votes to increase the millage before they reduce the payroll in those two dept. they should be voted out of office.
Hell if the fire everyone that Howard has hired from Berry law practice that should save about 1/2million. Then look at all of the pay increases Gregory gave to his political allies. He better work on reducing the 5.3 million in salaries before anyone EVER considers raising taxes!
Not so fast. I was at the 5:00"workshop" on the county health plan befvore last Tuesday's regular commission meeting. I was shocked by what I heard and read on the screen. As a result, I have e-mailed the risk manager, Staci Bowick - at the request of Steve Howard - to get some questions answered. they are questions I tried to ask in open session during public comments, but St. David was sweating bullets and would not let Mr. Howard answer them publicly. I now know why. I jsut got the reply e-mail this afternoon.
After I study the data this afternoon, then get some more data next week, I will publish a study of the plan on my blog. I was an insurance agent for 20 years; I've done consulting work for the Jax Risk Management Dept and the current risk manager for the City of Tallahassee is an old girlfriend of mine.
I think y'all are going to be amazed at what is going on. It is NOT the fault of the county mnanager or the risk manager: it is the direct result of political cowardice at best, and buying employee votes at worst, of past and current commissioners.
Stay tuned.
Politics
Saint Marys, GA
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|Report Abuse |Judge it! |#9 1 hr ago
I think by him (Moreno) saying that he wants to raise the millage rate and ignore the wishes of the public. DOOMED any chance he had at getting elected. Thats exactly what we don't need!
My response:
No, that is exactly what we desperately need - county commissioners who will educate the public on the tough choices that have to be made, then cast the tough votes with absolutely no regard for the personal political consequences - only what is the right thing to do.
While I agree that there are some big problems with the employee health plan, I also think that people should take a hard look at the salaries that are being paid to the people working under Mr. Howard. Since he started, he has created numerous jobs that pay in excess of $425,000.00 just in salaries (according to a recent payroll printout). That does not take into consideration the health care costs, 401(k) costs, etc.. that make up the "true" cost of an employee. There are "secretaries" who he has hired who are being paid more than people in comparable positions in other departments who have ten years of longevity with the county - and they actually work. While it is never popular to have to lay people off, there needs to be some oversight on how the money is being spent in that office and the salary bracket in which they are being hired. The county needs to go back to having a budget committee consisting of several people from several different departments to require department heads to justify line item by line item what they are requesting. I could go on and on an on.....
Jay, those hourly workers make very little money and haven't had a raise in four years. To cut their benefits any, would be just like cutting their throats. I know you disagree, but your friend Howard is wrong with his Harem that he has doing his work. Most of Howards work is keeping at least 3 commissioners on his side, while the Harem does the day to day Manager's business. He is a master of deceipt to hide all of his tactics. How can you justify him giving a raise to the department heads, (not a rumor, a fact), and just telling the hourly workers "No raise again this year". Hey, if I got an $8000 a year raise, I wouldn't care if my insurance premimum and deductible went up. You don't hear Staci whinning do you? So go ahead and do your reasearch, but do it thourghly.
Anonymous said...
While I agree that there are some big problems with the employee health plan, I also think that people should take a hard look at the salaries that are being paid to the people working under Mr. Howard. ....
When I'm elected to the county commission and have access to all of the numbers, I will do just that.
n the meantime, it apears that Mr. Howard, both in his person and in his department head hires, has finally brought to county goverment
(at the unelected level) the kind of professionalism that we have so long needed so badly.
So, we now have an adequate new physical facility for county government, a professionalized executive staff, but a not ready for prime time county commission.
Only the voters can solve that problem.
The current "keepers" are Berry and Keene. The other three clearly need to be replaced. the two ladies are nice folks but ineffective. Rainer is effective, but in a malign way. His modus operandi is to buy GOB voter loyalty with selective largesse. That does not equitably serve the best interests of the voters at large - just the interest of his GOB buddies. He has to go.
Anonymous said...
Jay, those hourly workers make very little money and haven't had a raise in four years. To cut their benefits any, would be just like cutting their throats. I know you disagree,...
No: you "know" no such thing. You have assumed it - and utterly incorrectly. I'm not suggesting cutting their benefits. A this point, I strongly suspect that when I complete my study of the self-funded health plan, I will recommend some modifications to the plan with an eye towards decreasing what is known as "overutilization." Moreovoer, I will likely recommend not only that the employees share of the actual cost of the plan be increased, but that the employees receive a virtujal dollar-for-dollar pay increase to match the increase in their share of the cost. I'm sure that the logic of that is not immediately apparent to you, but I'll explain when I've finished my study.
While I'm waitng to get more questions answered next week, here are a few factoids about the county health plan.
It is a self-funded PPO plan. The in-network, annual deductible for an entire family is $600.00
The employee's premium for covering employee, wife, and kids, is $52.60 bi-weekly. That averages out to only $113.66 per month. The last time the premium were adjusted upwards was on january 1, 2004. That was one of 2 rate increases to the employees in 12 YEARS!
If you work for a private company, what do you pay monthly for family coverage? How often do you see a rate increase?
Now, - get this. The total annual cost (for the rolling year ending last month) net of stop loss re-imbursement (amount of claims paid by re-insurance)per employee was $11,880.32! For 357 employes, that totalled $4,241,272, or more than half of what the sheriff wants to run his department.
Do I have your attention? Stay tuned.
How often do you see a cost of living increase in the private sector? How about step or merit increases for performance and/or years of service? How about taking that $53 a pay check from someone who is making on average apprx. $11 per hour. Do I have your attention now! Now go take a closer look at the health plan and see how many changes have been made to it over the last few years in regards to reductions in covered expenses. Why does the commission insist on being self insured? Why not let private insurance companies bid for the business? Oh and for your information, the Sheriff's Dept. and Fire/Rescue are also covered by the same insurance plan.
And for your information, those folks are included in the total of 375 covered employees as I stated.
Did you just not read it or just not understand it when I wrote
"Moreovoer, I will likely recommend not only that the employees share of the actual cost of the plan be increased, but that the employees receive a virtual dollar-for-dollar pay increase to match the increase in their share of the cost."?
You see, what has been happening is that the county commissioners have been covertly increasing employee benefits and cost tot he taxpayers while outwardly appearing to hold the line on employee compensation to serve their opwn narrow political needs come election time.
What I am propsoing is to raise the premiums to a level commensurate with the true costs of the plan and raise the employee pay by the same amount. There woud be no bet incresae in cost to the employees, initially.. The twin beenfits are that the employees will realize the true cost and become partners in efforts to keep the costs down (as opposed to cutrrrent overutilization), therebny reducing the rate of increases in the future, and the taxpayers will get a true picture of the costs of compensation for county employees -which may very well be way too low, irrespective of health plan issues.
Apparently, the county commissioners at one point seemed to think that self-insuring was a cheaper way to go - and they may be right. A fully insured, absouleltly identical version of this plan may well be more expensive, if only insofar as insurance companies are in business tomake a profit where the county is not.
However, I can tell you - for an absolute cetrtainty, that at the present time, relative to the premiums they are paying - county employees are getting one helluva deal - one that no private employer in their right mind would fund at that level of employee contribution. My ball park figure is that the premiums charged for a emplyee covering himself, a spouse, and one or more children are up to $300.00 per month what they would be in the porivate sector. On a 2,080 hour work year, that's the equivalent of another $1.73. per hour in compensation which such an employee is recieving tax free and witrhout either him or the voting public being aware of it. But you can damend sure bet the commissioners are aware of it and deliberately hiding it from the public.
Let me give you an example of just one of the things that is glaringly wrong with this plan.
What we have is a PPO - a Preferred Provider Organization. The very essence of a PPO is that
the plan goes out and negotiates lower set fees for services from doctors who agree in return for having their name listed in the book of approved "in network" providers. The way it is supposed to work is that there are then incorporated into the plan incentives to use in-network providers(i.e., doctors who have agrred to charge patients covered by the PPO lower fees) and disincemntives for using out of network providers.
For example, in the county plan, the annual family deductible for using in-network providers is only $600.00 versus $1,200 dollars for out of network providers. So far, so good. In January of this year, the co=-pay for emergency room visits was raised from just $50.00 to $100.00. That's on the right track. The object was to disincentivise all of the unnecessary trips to the ER that should have been far less costly trips to the doctors office, if not self-medicating with OTC drugs. But here is the sour note:
the co-pay for doctor visits is the same - $20.00 - for visits to both in-network and out-of-network providers. You will not find this in any private sector plan in which a businessman has the final say, versus vote buying, cowardly politicians. There, the co-pay for out-of-network visits will usually be at least double that for in-network visits. I do not see this in Ms. Bowick's e-mail, but it seems I recall someone telling me that the plan originally was like that, but some employees got to the commissioners (probably thorough St, David or E.B. Herrin)and made political threats until they caved (very easily, I'm sure.)
Bear in mind that if you can show that you need to see a specialist and there is not one of that type in the preffrered provider list, you can get permission to go to him for the lower in-network co-pay and deductible in most real-world plans.
In shprt, this plan is in bad need of serious revision. When I have the data I need next week, I think you will be shocked (though not enough to gore your own county employee ox) when I am able to tell you what percentage of the true cost of the coverage is actually be paid by the employees versus what is paid by the taxpayers.
P.S.
Correction - that cost per employee of $11,882.00 is only through the first TEN MONTHS of this fiscal and policy year!
By the way, if you are making $11.00 per hour and paying $52.60 bi-weekly for full family coverage, you are paying less than 6% of your annual income for full health coverage. If mama makes $11.00 per hour on her job as well, you are paying less than 3% of family income.
Jay Moreno said...
"Not so fast. I was at the 5:00"workshop" on the county health plan befvore last Tuesday's regular commission meeting. I was shocked by what I heard and read on the screen. As a result, I have e-mailed the risk manager, Staci Bowick - at the request of Steve Howard - to get some questions answered. they are questions I tried to ask in open session during public comments, but St. David was sweating bullets and would not let Mr. Howard answer them publicly. I now know why. I jsut got the reply e-mail this afternoon."
Now, from the above statemtn, some asshole on TOPIX has deduced that i am looking into the county health plan at the request of Mr. Howard - i.e., he contacted me and asked me to do "his dirty work," to quote the asshole.
Lewt me see if I can make this simple enough so that even a TOIX moron can understand it. I, of my own volition (i.e., on my own, at no one's request attended the health plan workshop). As a result of what I heard, I attempted to ask the county manager some questions about it during the publicn commewnts section of the regular meeting. I aksed Mr. Rainewr if I could "through the chair" ask Mr. Howared for soem clarification. He feigned shock, and assured me that such a thing jusst isn't done. So, when I had finished stating what my questions were during the meeting, after the meeting, Mr. Howard approached me, with Staci Bowick in tow, introduced her, and told me to e-mail my questions to her. Under the same circumstances, he would no doubt have done exactly the same trhing regardless of who the citizen making the inquiry was.
I can fully appreciate why neither Mr. Rainer nor any of the commisiioners nor any of the county employees would want the general electorate and tax-paying public to know what is curently going on with the health plan. Stay tuned.
I believe that some of the "pioneer" upscale northend residents have actually been folks who are still in their working years with jobs in Brunswick or on the Golden Isles. They wouldn't live in mainland Brunswick becuase of the crime rate and general deterioration and obsolescence of the housing stock. They don't want to live on the islands because of the cost. The north end of Camden is the perfect alternative.
However, I too wonder who will fill the THOUSANDS of units that are already planned.
Oops! I put that last comment on the wromng post!
Glynn county is rnning out of water. The north end of Camden County has plenty. Its suppose to be some sort of water commission initiate by one of Chapmans bills that also includes members from Glynn County. I believe this board was has already been created. Thats suppose to oversee all sorts of things. This all ties into the billion dollar development Charlie Smith is representing at the intersection of Horsestamp Road.
When I first heard about all of this about three years ago I could'nt figure out how this benefits Camden County. I still don't understand. So the troika forge forward allowing developers to create subdivisions, the planning dept issued permits, and the owners sold lots.
Today all of the subdivision on the north end have gates that signify a subdivision exist but none of them has residents.
One weekend as I was riding through one I stopped and talked to the guys at Rivers Plantation. I believe thats the name anyways they were very disgruntled about the entire situation. Because of what others were allowed to do it was causing hardship on them trying to sell their property. They said none of the others had any type of infrastruture, not even paved roads. He questioned what type of outfit approves all of this stuff. SAD REALLY SAD!!
Jays response:
No, that is exactly what we desperately need - county commissioners who will educate the public on the tough choices that have to be made, then cast the tough votes with absolutely no regard for the personal political consequences - only what is the right thing to do.
May 8, 2009 7:43 PM
My response:
In principle you're correct. But on the issue of elevating the millage rate, I stronly disagree.
The County is'nt the only government in Camden County that is in financial trouble. Kingsland is the only solidly run government.
Once the Governors legislation is implimented in January this will cause another shortage for County and all Municipalities. If the Chapman bill comes to a vote, it will pass. Then the municipalities will have to roll the assessed value back to 2006 and then implement on top of Governors.
Camden County and Municipalities have got to CUT COST from their payrolls. Someone has got to combine positions. This community cannot continue to support four or more of everything. Before anyone considers elevating the millage rate; the elected should start combining positions and eliminating others. A more cost effective government is what we REALLY need.
Denise R. Taylor
Claerly, Denise, there is no way the public can -or should - tolerate a millage rate increase until the economy turns around. However, the fact that at the county level we desperately need one as a direct result of past incumbent commissioners buying votes with ill-advisedly deep, politically motivated millage rate cuts is painfuly obvious.
While consolidatrion would no doubt cut down a lot of duplicative costs, we don't have the money - even if there was the political will and courage to do it now - to cover the up-front, transient, increased costs that would come with consolidation.
It looks like we're just going t have to persevere until "change" comes to America (or a Republican administration - which ever comes first).
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