Roselle trustee at odds with board on insurance costs

As Roselle wrestles with a budget shortfall, one village trustee disagrees with fellow officials on how to save money next year on employee health insurance.

The village board voted last month to seek bids for its insurance plan and brokerage services. But when Trustee Kory Atkinson this week tried to expedite the matter, he drew no support.

Atkinson said Roselle currently spends about $1.2 million per year for insurance coverage of approximately 100 employees, a major expenditure in Roselle's budget.

"Even though professional services like attorneys, brokers and architects are not subject to the normal bidding process, it has been my position that under the current budget constraints we should bid out everything to seek the best cost savings," Atkinson said.

But Village President Gayle Smolinski said the village staff is already swamped with executing cost-saving directives given by the board at the same meeting last month, including negotiating with three labor unions to agree on furlough days and on freezing salary increases.

This would not leave them enough time to properly research the best prices and coverage before the Feb. 1 deadline to renew insurance plans, she said. And open enrollment begins in several weeks prior.

The village staff, Smolinski said, tries to do "everything we ask of them but they were overwhelmed. "So since this isn't a three-, five- or 10-year contract, we asked our current broker to sharpen his pencil for now, and we plan to go out to bid next year."

The village's broker, James Hodgdon, owner of Hodgdon Benefits Consultants, Inc., produced a proposal that could reduce health insurance and brokerage costs by $200,000 for the coming fiscal year, officials said.

Officials said the village does plan to bid out insurance proposals next year in preparation for the 2011 budget, when staff has more time to prepare.

"We are all in agreement and no one has a problem with (a bid)," Smolinski said. "The only thing we have a problem with is one trustee's insistence that it has to be done right now."

But Atkinson maintains that a full bid would have been possible if Roselle staff began work on the project after the board's September vote.

"Had it been a priority back in September, it would have been ample time," he said. "The models I have been able to obtain from other government entities indicate that a full request for proposal is not that complicated."

Trustee Terrence Wittman echoed Smolinski's statements, noting Roselle sought a full request for proposals five years ago and Hodgdon's company won the bid. In addition, Wittman said, insurance premiums for Roselle employees have been limited to single-digit percentage increases over the last three years.

"We are not being bad stewards of the people's money," said Wittman. "We are trying to be proactive in all cost-saving measures."