untanglingwebs
El Supremo
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Kincaid announced at both council committee and special affairs that he believed the proposed resolution as written was unfair to the exempts. Exempts have no union representation and don't get raises when unions do. Kincaid said that when the unions pay more for hrealth care then he will approve the increase for the exempts.
Rumors around city hall are the budget process will be interesting. When Brown left the budget was balanced. The present administration did not follow the budget and did not pay attention to the monthly budget to actuals until council drove it home at the budget mid year review. Even then Walling was a slow learner.
Mayor Dayne Walling: Flint City Council turned health care cost-saving proposal into 'political ax'
By Kristin Longley | Flint Journal
March 09, 2010, 6:11PM
Ryan Garza | The Flint JournalMayor Dayne Walling makes his State of the City speech at Flint City Hall in February.FLINT, Michigan — Mayor Dayne Walling said the city council's changes to his health care cost-sharing proposal have cut the plan's expected savings in half.
To help trim the city's projected $8-million deficit, Walling had proposed having all elected, appointed and exempt employees increase their employee health care contributions to 20 percent of the total cost.
The changes would have affected about 80 employees.
But the city council on Monday night amended Walling's proposal to remove exempt employees from the changes and increase the elected and appointed employees' contributions to 30 percent.
Walling said he supports increasing the employee contribution to 30 percent, but now that it's restricted to elected and appointed employees only, the proposal affects fewer than 30 people.
Walling said his proposal would have saved more than $100,000 per year, but the new plan will save less than $50,000 a year.
If the 30 percent contribution would have included exempt employees, it would have saved more than $200,000 a year, he said.
"City council took a legitimate cost-saving proposal and turned it into a political ax against the administration," Walling said. "I am very disappointed that the number of employees affected was cut so dramatically. The more shared sacrifice we have the more jobs we can save."
Walling said the total health care costs for the approximately 80 elected, appointed and exempt employees is about $900,000 per year. The employees' portion of that cost currently totals about $70,000 (about 8 percent), he said.
Many city council members don't receive health care through the city.
"We were in favor of significant change here," Walling said.
City Councilman Scott Kincaid proposed removing exempt employees from the changes because they aren't represented by unions, and haven't received the same wage increases and bonuses other groups of employees have received.
But Walling said the salaries for appointees and elected officials have been flat over the same period of time, while the city's health care costs have increased.
"This was a political move against the administration," he said. "They're attempting to isolate a few individuals rather than deal with the overall economic challenges of the city."
Walling said he has tried to lead by example with cuts to his position.
Walling has returned 5 percent of his pay to the city each payroll period and is taking 12 unpaid days off, he said. As an elected official, the new 30 percent health care cost-sharing proposal applies to him as well, he said.
Walling said those cuts add up to about 17 percent of his total cost. |
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