The Not-OK Corral: LRA and Health Insurance Showdowns On the Horizon

By Mick Parsons For The Prairie Advocate News

MOUNT CARROLL – During this month’s State’s Attorney and Finance Committee Meeting, the language was tough when it came to the county’s future relationship with the LRA (Local Redevelopment Authority), which has been the subject of increased discussion lately given the fast approaching sunset of that organization and the turning over of the rest of the Savanna Depot by the U.S. Army in 2014. There was also some tough talk regarding health insurance for county workers, especially in light of a petition from some members of the FOP to the committee regarding the choice of insurance carriers.

During last month’s committee meeting, the members discussed the possibility of a no-teeth resolution announcing the county’s intention not to accept any new liability regarding the water and sewage infrastructure at the Savanna Army Depot. This has come after nearly two years of the county’s concerns being ignored or sidelined by the LRA – particularly by the Infrastructure Committee, which is predominately controlled by representatives of JoDaviess County. This wouldn’t be as much of an issue for Carroll County except that most of the 400 acre industrial park, along with its aging and financially insolvent water infrastructure, is in Carroll County.

Paul Hartman (District 1), who serves as the county board’s representative on the LRA, has been trying to get the LRA to address the issue of future liability, but with no real success. Simply getting the LRA to put language in tenant lease agreements regarding the future of the water infrastructure has been met with resistance. The county board has been trying to get the LRA to at least inform businesses at the Depot that there may not be water infrastructure after 2014. But not only will the LRA not admit to this possibility, the county board maintains that the LRA actually says the opposite when enticing tenants to the property. Hartman said the primary reason the LRA won’t include the language in any of their lease agreements is that to do so wouldn’t be a good marketing tool.

In addition to the resolution, which will go to the full board during this week’s regular meeting, the State’s Attorney and Finance Committee is also looking at the possibility of pulling out of the LRA entirely. There is language in the original ordinance that allows for either JoDaviess or Carroll county to pull out of the LRA; the problem there is that whatever liability the county has when it decides to pull out, it keeps. According to County Administrator Mike Doty, the next step is looking at what the Army will do in the event that the county walks away.

The resolution, which is more of a statement of intent rather than an enforceable statute, would simply announce the county’s intention to not take on the lion’s share of liability once the rest of the property at the industrial park is transferred. It does nothing to countermand the original ordinance, nor can it require the LRA to take any specific action. Committee members are simply hoping that it will spur the LRA and the lop-sided Infrastructure Committee into taking the county’s concerns seriously. If the resolution doesn’t have this effect, or if the county can’t back out of LRA in time, it will end up inheriting the bulk of a water infrastructure that costs $70,000 a year to maintain while only bringing in around $10,000.

Perhaps still feeling the sting of its arbitration trouncing from the FOP, members of the State’s Attorney and Finance Committee were frustrated at what they interpret as the union’s refusal to cooperate with the county’s attempts to try and reduce health insurance costs in the face of a 23% cost increase over last year’s rates. Prior to the Thursday morning meeting, Mike Doty was presented with a petition signed by sixteen FOP members calling for the committee to maintain it’s current plan through Blue Cross Blue Shield of Illinois and local agent John Bickelhaupt.

According to the language of the petition, Bickelhaupt “is knowledgeable and has always been extremely helpful in answering any questions that have come up. Since the county has had Blue Cross Blue Shield of IL Insurance there have been very few, if any problems that have occurred.” Although Sheriff Jeff Doran said he had no prior knowledge of the petition, he did say that the FOP had problems with Midwest, the insurance carrier the county had prior to BCBS; Doran said that with the previous carrier, it was difficult to get questions answered and that most claims had to be appealed – even ones that would normally be reasonable.

In addition to the petition, however, several of the Unified Medical Forms insurance broker Steve Hamilton passed out to county employees were returned empty. Hamilton provided the forms at the request of the committee in order to provide a more accurate bid for the county’s business. Because the forms weren’t filled out, Hamilton was unable to provide the specific kind of bid asked for by the committee, and was forced to essentially back out of dealing with county. The forms were passed out to all county employees and everyone from the other two unions – the Teamsters and the Carpenter’s Union – filled them out. Doran said that the FOP union representative Kevin Krug was only concerned about members putting their social security numbers on the forms, but otherwise saw no issue.

Between the petition and the refusal to fill out the forms, members of the State’s Attorney and Finance Committee view of the FOP – which was admittedly not positive to begin with – has only gotten worse. Even though some of the language in the petition in some ways mirrors the statements of some committee members, most notably Annette Rahn (District II) who has voiced her support of keeping county money in the county by staying with Bickelhaupt, the overall tone struck the committee as uncooperative. Mike Doty and others said that if the county simply caved to the petition that it would end up swallowing the 23% increase, which the county at this time is unwilling – and they claim unable – to do.

They also see this action by the members of the FOP as straining an already tense relationship between the FOP and the county board. Rahn said she was shocked at the union “refusing to cooperate” with the county as it tries to find some way to maintain insurance coverage.

But this is not an isolated issue. The relationship between the county and the FOP has shown strain and wear that can’t simply be blamed on supposed intransigence by the union. The county has long had a tumultuous relationship with unions and with it’s employees, and it’s always the same reasons. Management concerns butt up against the day to day concerns of working people. Government budgets and household budgets rarely, if ever, operate the same. And while there are those on the county board who seem to think the county is doing its employees a favor by even offering insurance, the fact is that most if not all of the county’s employees can only afford to cover themselves because family insurance plans are too expensive. In addition, this last round binding arbitration – which the county lost – was pushed by the county. And although Mike Doty maintains it was done more or less to create a precedence for future contract negotiations, and that it will somehow save the county money in the long run, there’s undoubtedly some lingering resentment – on both sides. While not accusing some FOP union members of wrong-doing, some members of the county board have certainly suggested that how comp time is structured and used is unethical; and Doty has said outright that the way some the dispatchers are paid is probably illegal and that part of the reason for pushing to arbitration was to get a ruling one way or the other.

The good news is that, depending on who you talk to, everyone’s a victim. Or maybe it’s not good news. While that ought to put everyone at least on equal footing, all it does is pit the county against the FOP – again. Chairman Fritz said during the meeting that the only way to play hardball with the union is with the budget; and given the increased animosity, distrust, and growing economic worries that the county is facing, the dust won’t settle anytime soon – and certainly not before the annual budget talks when everyone squares off and defends their departmental budgets.

 

Loading