City offers affordable individual insurance plan to employees
The Stockton City Commission met on Tuesday, December 17th for the last regular meeting of 2019. One of the items on the agenda was the Affordable Care Act. According to the guidelines there should be at least one affordable insurance plan based on employee wages that is offered to the employees. After researching what could be offered to be in compliance, Flower stated that the City could offer to pay 100% of the high deductible blue plan for a single employee, or go by the IRS Poverty formula with the maximum amount an employee can pay with this formula the amount of $101.79. That would put the City in compliance with the guidelines of the Affordable Care Act. The City will continue to offer the 70/30 high deductible blue plan for family insurance where the employee pays 30% of the cost. Commissioner Nathan Glendening asked why Julie Yarmer with Freedom Claims had not informed the commissioners about this, stating that it was unfortunate that it came to light after the City had met with her about insurance proposals for the 2020 year. After a short discussion, the commissioners voted to offer the high deductible blue plan for an individual at a cost of $101.79 per month with the City to pay for the rest of the plan. Solomon Valley Manor Administrator Amanda Atkisson said she had talked with her employees and thought most of the single individuals would pick up the blue plan for the coming year. Commissioner Reesa Brown stated that the Commission will need to rethink what can be done for the 2021 year, even though the Commission will not know insurance costs or increases until October.
City attorney Joe Gasper was at the meeting to clarify the city ordinance dealing with portable storage containers, and what the actual definition of a portable storage unit is. Flower said letters have been sent out to residents about storage units they have on their property. A ten-minute executive session was held to discuss attorney/ client privileges with commissioners Reesa Brown, Don McLaughlin, Nathan Glendening, Kim Thomas and Sandi Rogers, city manager Courtney Flower and attorney Joe Gasper in attendance. There was no further discussion when the commissioners came back to the open meeting.
Jamie Marcotte has expressed interest in the lots on North Fourth Street that are owned by the City. The commissioners noted that the lots are $500.00 each. Flower will inform Marcotte of the cost and stipulations to purchasing the lots.
The commissioners then approved the annual CMB license renewal for Webster’s Supermarket in Stockton. They also held a short discussion about the sidewalk steps on north Main Street, which have been brought to their attention.
The City of Stockton fund status report was approved after the commissioners reviewed the budget amendments for the 2019 year. They also approved the Solomon Valley Manor fund status report as presented, before the commissioners appointed Courtney Flower and Nathan Glendening as the League’s key contacts for Legislation.
Flower reported that the police transactions are being finalized for the the conversion to the Rooks County Sheriff’s Department by the first of the year. The computers are in the process of being shut down at this time. The special meeting for the City’s budget amendment will be held on Monday, December 23rd.
The commissioners also approved the Consent Agenda at the start of the meeting, which included the Solomon Valley Manor gross payroll in the amount of $61,387.37, the Solomon Valley Manor warrants in the amount of $38,383.50, the City of Stockton warrants in the amount of $151,426.54, and the December 3rd regular meeting minutes after minor corrections were made.
Present for the evening session were commissioners Reesa Brown, Sandi Rogers, Don McLaughlin, Kim Thomas and Nathan Glendening, as well as city manager Courtney Flower and accounts payable clerk Kayla Hilbrink.
