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Benefit Reductions (October 2010) |
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By Mitra Moassessi
During their September 7 meeting, the Board of Trustees approved a resolution establishing a maximum district contribution for health insurance benefits for the Board of Trustees, Personnel Commission, the Superintendent/President, all Academic Managers, all Classified Managers, and all Confidential Employees. Effective January 1, 2011, the maximum district contribution for any person subject to this resolution is set at the PERS Choice premium level.
The Board of Trustees also approved establishing a Health Reimbursement Arrangement (HRA) for those persons affected by this resolution. The HRA plan, which can be used for reimbursement of qualified medical expenses authorized by law, has been established for 2011 and 2012.
The resolution was approved with a vote of six to one with Trustee Margaret Quiñones-Perez casting the only “no” vote. Trustee Quiñones-Perez, in her comments in relation to this resolution, stated that as a trustee she cannot support this resolution. Dr. Quiñones-Perez expressed her concern about a group of employees to be used as a role model for people to compromise their health benefits. She apologized to the affected employee and stated that she believes this sends a wrong message on how to communicate with your employees and how you want the budgetary issues to be addressed.
According to a document prepared by the district for 2010-11, the approved change in the health benefit will result in savings of $344,416 in insurance premiums with a net savings of $221,416 after the district contribution to the HRA accounts. This represents roughly 0.16% of the unrestricted total expenditure!
Historically, all employee segments of the college have shared equal health benefits. Forcing a group that has no union representation to lower their health benefits to make an example hoping the rest of us will follow along is an unsettling example of regressive thinking.
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