FARMINGTON — The Farmington Board of Selectmen agreed unanimously Tuesday to reset and freeze shared employee health insurance costs for full-time employees following an October decision not to give town employees a cost-of-living wage increase,
“You’re talking about the people who work for us,” Selectman Michael Fogg said. “I would like to help them as much as we possibly can. And in the long term, it looks like (freezing insurance cost percentages) will help them.”
After lengthy discussion, the selectmen unanimously approved resetting the percentages for shared employee health insurance costs to an 80 percent town share and 20 percent employee share. For employees with dependent plans, the cost split will be a 55 percent town share and a 45 percent share for families.
The town now picks up 78 percent of an employee’s health insurance costs and the individual pays the remaining 22 percent. For dependent plans, the town now pays 63 percent and the employee pays 37 percent.
According to several cost-sharing scenarios that Town Manager Richard Davis provided the board, the 80-20 and 55-45 cost-sharing model will cost the town an additional $26,762.34 in 2016, when compared to 2015 health insurance expenditures.
In 2006 the board decided that town employees would pay half of any increase in health insurance costs and the town the other half each year, but in the long term the board was concerned that would become a burdensome amount for employees. “As time goes on, (the town’s) number goes down and (the employee’s) goes up,” Selectman Andrew Buckland said.
At the Oct. 28 meeting, selectmen decided not to give a cost-of-living increase to town employees in 2016 because, according to the Consumer Price Index, average cost of living for urban wage and clerical workers nationwide decreased 1 percent. Instead of issuing a pay cut to align with the national figure, selectmen decided providing no increase would be more fair to town employees. However, it was noted at this meeting that because town employees pick up 50 percent of any increase in health insurance costs year to year, their take-home pay would be lower in 2016.
Davis said that if the percentages were not frozen, the increase in health insurance costs would have resulted in essentially a 3.1 percent pay cut for full-time employees in 2016. To help alleviate the rising costs of health insurance and remain competitive with surrounding towns, the selectmen had been considering freezing the cost-sharing percentages at their last two meetings.
While the new percentages feature an 8 percent increase for the employee’s share of dependent plan coverage, after much discussion from a few selectmen, Selectman Matthew Smith noted that by lowering the employee’s share for an individual plan, the employee still would be getting some overall relief from health insurance costs even if dependent costs went up slightly.
Before the unanimous decision, selectmen Smith and Fogg made a motion to adopt an 85/15 town-employee and 50/50 town-dependent cost sharing model that would have increased the cost to the town by $35,000 in 2016. The motion was voted down, 3-2.
The new cost-sharing percentages will go into effect Jan. 1.
In other business, selectmen announced that they are accepting applications for an interim Farmington director to sit on the Mt. Blue Regional School District Board.
Director Yvette Robinson resigned from the position last week because her family has moved to Wilton, making her ineligible to represent Farmington on the school board. Robinson was elected in 2013 and her term would have expired in June.
The interim director will serve the remainder of Robinson’s term. An election for the position will be held before the Town Meeting on March 28 to fill the position for a full three-year term.
Anyone interested in applying for the interim director position can get an application on the town’s website or one can be picked up at the Town Office. Selectmen will choose an interim director based on these applications at the Dec. 22 meeting.
Lauren Abbate — 861-9252
Twitter: @Lauren_M_Abbate
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