Employees of the all-Republican St. Johns County Commission and five all-Republican constitutional officers got a rude shock last week: their bosses and top managers will be exempt from health care increases for family coverage, applicable to ALL OTHER employees of the Board of County Commissioners, Sheriff, Clerk of Courts and Comptroller, Tax Collector, Property Appraiser and Supervisor of Elections.
No response yet to Open Records requests.
Employees are furious and talking union. Steamed employees spent Labor Day weekend talking about why their bosses -- County Administrator MICHAEL WANCHICK, Sheriff DAVID SHOAR, Clerk of Courts and Comptroller HUNTER CONRAD, Tax Collector DENNIS HOLLINGSWORTH, Property Appraiser EDWARD CRAMER and Supervisor of Elections VICKI OAKES.
They're also wondering why they vote Republican, for people who screw workers.
Why has the Democratic Party in St. Johns County not run a Democrat for county-wide elected office since 2006?
Why has the St. Augustine Record not reported on the joint memo dated August 28, 2017 memo from County Administrator MICHAEL WANCHICK, Sheriff DAVID SHOAR, Clerk of Courts and Comptroller HUNTER CONRAD, Tax Collector DENNIS HOLLINGSWORTH, Property Appraiser EDWARD CRAMER and Supervisor of Elections VICKI OAKES to all county employees?.
Waiting on a press release?
Waiting on permission from the pitiful Politburo of the failed MORRIS COMMUNICATIONS empire in Augusta, Georgia (which is losing the Record but retaining its gambler-owners European interests, including properties in Great Britain and (my favorite) the only English-speaking radio station in the principality of Monaco?
Controversial County Administrator MICHAEL DAVID WANCHICK raised eyebrows at the June 16, 2017 Health Committee meeting -- off-limits to Government TV cameras, with no public comment allowed -- when he said "generous" health care benefits were used in "recruiting" and to "stave off unionization."
This union-buster needs to go somewhere else -- he's a stench in the nostrils of St. Johns County, Republican Lord of All He Surveys, with no class and no respect for First Amendment protected activity of citizens and employees.. He's Sheriff DAVID SHOAR's best buddy. Both are
Some 61% of the American people support unions, and if voted on, a majority of County employees would likely vote for unions to protect their rights against willful men like Sheriff DAVID SHOAR f/k/a "HOAR."
St. Johns County Commission Chairman James Kenneth Johns apparently has no influence with County Adminisrator MICHAEL DAVID WANCHICK. In June, Mr. Johns, a developer engineer, stated that health care cost increases would apply equally to all employees, including top management See article below:
Posted June 25, 2017 12:35 am
By JAKE MARTIN jake.martin@staugustine.com
St. Johns County could put rising health care costs back onto employees
St. Johns County appears poised to shift some of the increasing costs for its self-funded health care program back onto its employees.
Over the past few months, the board has called for county staff to seek efficiencies, such as putting management of the county’s health insurance out to bid or tinkering with the types of plans available, in the face of rising costs. The increase was 18 percent in 2017 and was projected to climb even higher in 2018, barring any changes.
Commissioners on Tuesday voted unanimously in favor of transferring nearly $1.4 million in retiree premiums, going back to fiscal year 2016, from the county’s Other Post-Employment Benefits Trust Fund, or OPEB, into the Health Insurance Fund.
Jesse Dunn, director of management and budget, said the shift would allow the county to apply those monies directly to costs associated with retiree health care claims, which were cited as the main culprit for ballooning costs in the overall plan. He said the county’s Health Insurance Fund has been “largely subsidizing” claims made by retirees for a number of years and that the intent is to redirect their current contributions against those costs.
“It basically falls back to a basic accounting principle of matching your current revenues to your current expenditures,” he told commissioners, adding there would be no increased cost encumbered by the retirees.
County Administrator Michael Wanchick said the integrity of the county’s OPEB Trust Fund “will not be compromised” by the board’s action.
“You’re shifting monies between a fund that is extremely well funded, OPEB, into a fund that needs some help right now,” he said. “We’re not compromising. If we were we would let you know.”
Wanchick said the problem has been building up over about a decade and that re-aligning the premiums with the costs for retirees was the first step in what he called a “reconciliation process” for the plan as a whole.
The accounting adjustment also signaled a policy change that will redirect receipts of retiree premiums from OPEB to the Health Insurance Fund on an annual basis.
Allen MacDonald, county finance director, told commissioners that under Florida law, if the county offers a health insurance plan to its employees, that same plan has to be extended to retirees. He said anything a current employee receives under regular heath care, the retiree receives as well, at least until he or she may go on a supplement plan or choose to discontinue their coverage.
Dunn said further discussions will be had with the intent of reducing the impacts of health care on the county, as the employer.
He said the county could consider adjusting the mix of employer-employee responsibility toward health care costs, essentially by increasing the employee contribution, as well as making changes to the health care plan design.
Design change, Dunn said, could entail looking at high-deductible health plans versus Preferred Provider Organization plans or revisiting the different benefits (medical, dental and vision) offered and re-aligning those to provide employees “a level of insurance” while making sure it’s affordable to the county.
Commissioners asked for specifics like what the county could expect to save or how much of a percentage increase employees might expect to pay, but Dunn said there were too many variables and different plans, such as individual, individual plus spouse or individual plus family, to start giving solid estimates.
He said his office feels strongly that the county can implement increased employee participation in their health insurance program over the next few years while bringing down the employer contribution into the fund, thus lowering costs for the county. He said he couldn’t promise on a number because insurance costs are based largely on claims from year to year.
Commission Chair Jimmy Johns clarified that the county wasn’t recommending something that administration and commissioners wouldn’t be affected by as well.
Dunn said he will be bringing forward his recommended budget for 2018 on July 18 and that there will also be an agenda item that day providing an overview for the county’s health care program and OPEB fund for the next year.
Off the rolls
During a budget preview for 2018, on Feb. 21, Commissioner Jeb Smith lamented the double digit percentage increases he was seeing to the costs of the county’s health insurance. He called the 18 percent increase for 2017 a “dagger” to him.
“That’s an unknown that we need to have mitigated,” he said, adding commissioner should, perhaps, consider capping services.
Smith also questioned whether the county had recently put out a request for proposals on that front, to which County Administrator Michael Wanchick said they were going through that process.
“It has been a constant focus,” he added, referring to the county’s efforts to deal with the rising costs.
Wanchick also told commissioners the county did an audit a few years ago of all its employees and their families and found close to 100 people who shouldn’t have been on the rolls that the county then took off.
Smith asked whether the extra participants on the roll were a contributor to the 18 percent increase to which Wanchick said he was not sure because the plan, “as a whole,” went up.
“That was done a few years ago that we got those people off,” he said. “I think 18 is a raw 18.”
On Tuesday, Wanchick said that audit had uncovered about 70 employees who were still on the plan but no longer employed by the county or otherwise entitled to be on the plan. He said they were all removed.
“Maybe those people did so through their own error,” he said. “There wasn’t any criminal pursuit of anyone. That wasn’t our intent.”
Wanchick said they have since that time commissioned a second health care audit and they are waiting for those results.
“We do it on a regular basis now to purge our rolls,” he said. “We’re not out to prosecute anyone and I think there’s a better understanding, when you leave county employment or your circumstances change, that you’re no longer allowed to be on health care and we address it accordingly.”
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