I'll start with Pledge. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God and indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Pause for a minute and silence. Is there any additions? No, sir. OK. So we will start with reports. Mr. Oliver. Just a report back on homecoming. It's over. But we had a lot of really good and positive feedback on the channels we made this year. The parade and the power puff. I believe huge hit and the feedback I can get. Moving in advance to the Saturday night was also a plus indicated they estimated about 25 more than what they normally get on homecoming Friday night. And with as long as the game went Friday night, it was probably a good move anyway. We anticipated that we were going to have to delay it because the volleyball team at Linden getting back a little bit late and everything fell in place and what that means. Also, too, I do announce, too, that we have a new PA system installed today on football press box. It sounds awesome. Looking forward to being able to utilize that in more capacity than we have been able to. And we are currently looking for a new popcorn popper. The one we had at the football field. Save up the ghost. Yeah. Our main guide is some research on it and found that they quit making that particular model in the 1990s. So that's what you'd probably want. Needless to say, there's no parts available. But we've probably got our money's worth, though. But the booster club has, back on the other thing, the booster club didn't bump in. I kicked in $1,000 for the new PA system at the football field. And we've got a couple of people in the community that are willing to put some money towards a new popcorn popper, too. So there must be popcorn fanatics on this, I don't know. And that's about it, I think, really. As far as new stuff going on right now. You're going to talk about the cotton candy machine? Well, I just heard about it. And I don't have all the details about that. So I'm going to pause on that right here. Yeah. All right, thank you. So that's exciting, that PA systems. Hopefully it's to where we can get the music to work with. And I don't know when that was in the soul, but I'm guessing maybe when the plus box was put on that side of the field. I don't know. And what I've seen, the activities that I participated or attended the homecoming week was very well attended. I had several people come up to me also, both the parade and the game. And kids had fun. Oh, still worries me. I served as a girl with a broken arm at Valley Falls from another school. But that's OK. So the girls had a lot of fun. I didn't know that. Yeah, the cheerleaders were having a good time, too. It sounds like theirs might have been a little rougher than ours. It's going to be very clear. The residents. What's your favorite part, too? Yeah. I know. The referees. Yeah. I was excited to see the homecoming parade for the first time. Yeah. The year stuff. And at this, we had a lot more community involvement because of the local community. Yes. Josh. I don't have anything extra to add. And this time. Consent agenda. Do I have a motion to approve? It's been moved and seconded that we approve the consent agenda. All in favor, say aye. Aye. All opposed, same side. OK. Old and new business. Transition back to in-person public board meetings. So this was discussed. We have the option to either televised or do in-person meetings. And so as a result of you guys have all let me know that you prefer to do in-person meetings and have life in person moving forward. So this is going to be our last broadcast of these meetings. And we'll always encourage the public to attend in person. We've got the seating arrangements for them. So we encourage them to be part of every board meeting. Transition to commerce bank cashback card for district purchases. So here we have a situation where we've got an opportunity to earn some extra money. Some passive income for the district. In this case, using a 1% cashback card. We have billions of dollars in expenditures out of this district. And so we want to take advantage of an opportunity to earn some free money. So we have shopped around. We're working with Commerce Bank at this time. We've checked in with a couple of the district as well to see how they like the service and how it works. Besides the 1%, it does allow us a little bit better options in terms of tracking expenditures and also gives the individual canvases and departments a little bit more of a control of their individual budgets while still kind of monitoring placing caps on so we don't have overshadowed expenditures. Any questions on that, please? Was there any options with our local banks in our district? Did they have any options? Not that we were aware of. That would be my first question. If we could keep it local, we would like to keep it open. This is an information. Is there any other feedback, comments? Anybody have anything on that? Okay. Mr. Comer, we will check in to up to see if there is a little option first before we pull the trigger on this. Okay. I appreciate that. Okay. Discussion, update on the bond election. Yeah, so this afternoon you were seeing one of the first communications that is intended to go out to all voters in the district. I wanted to give you guys an opportunity to look at the message, give us some feedback on the layout, the information that we've got gathered there. I've already received some feedback from Mr. Frank and was curious to hear if there's any other items or things of the strategy that we're working on is to start with the, especially the main selling points of the things that we're trying to do. Some of the more nitty gritty details will be handled in a postcard mail out that will come up a little bit later in mid-October, as well as through the political action committee that we are developing as of this Friday. That vote yes pack this meeting Friday to start the ball rolling on a local campaign with residents and community members. Currently, I've already been scheduled to speak at 10 different events between now and the long election. That includes four community meetings, two chamber commerce meetings, one to three other community meetings that have been organized and invited me to come speak. And so we are planning on putting the word out just as quickly and as accurate as possible. But again, at any point, I'm anxious to hear about feedback from the board members as to the specific message and the details that you would want us to include. Yes ma'am. And I want to acknowledge that I did put in request to the, to HTK to change some of the labels and one label in particular that I think will be very important. It has to do with the idea of the, yes ma'am, we're on the same page. No, you're right. Okay, I was just saying, I do like hiding the pictures, and I think that that's important. And again, Miss Oliver is exactly correct. We're starting with the Tech Housing Foot View. And then as we go deeper, as we move closer to the election, we'll make sure that we also reinforce some of the granular details. And again, we're holding the goal on the prize out there first so that everybody knows where we're heading. What's the pitch? We have all those dates. That's a lot. So board members are always invited to attend to be part of that, but I'm prepared to handle those on solo if I need to. I do believe that we'll probably have some participants from the PAC that will want to be part of that. And Patrick Shutter has committed to also take those as well to give any input on the architectural side or the construction side of it. Who would you mind sharing the dates with us? They are on the back of the... Are they on the bottom of this? On the bottom of this. Okay, I can send those other ones as well. Yeah. No, absolutely. I'd be glad to send those out. And if you guys want to attend, I'm sure that the different community groups would have no issues with board members being part of this as well. Sure, you're more than welcome to come and stand alongside. Some of them, maybe some very interesting conversations and some may just be off a couple of things. We'll have, again, a postcard mail out through a call-out about mid-October and we'll make sure we put that in front of the board before we send it out to keep the opportunity to review it. We'll have one more meeting. We've got a bar in the lecture, so that'll be our opportunity to get any last-minute feedback. Thank you. Okay. Idle District Fund's investment options. So, I've provided you with a document so we've met with Stop Builders Bank to look at the potential of using some of the Idle Funds in our district to, again, absorb passive income, in this case, the form of CD investment. The strategy is to ladder out the money so that we start out with a 6, 12, 18, 24-month CD's and then as each CD expires, it'll be renewed in a 24-month, so we always have cash readily available for purchases. But up until this point, the money has just been sitting in account and not earning interest or any kind of dividends for us. So we want to try and take advantage of that, especially with the level of funds that we have available in continuous CD capital outlay that probably could, in fact, be working for us. This is a strategy that many districts use and so I want to take advantage of this opportunity as well here in our district. Did everybody receive the interest rates and the information that was provided by Mr. Hybe? Did he email? Yes, sir. Yes, sir, that's correct. And I've got those interest rates as far as if anybody needs me to read them off. Don't say that. Don't say me if you see them. You're welcome. You want me to write off those interest rates? Okay, for a 6-month, we have 1.34%. 12-month is 1.65%. The 18-month is 1.84%. And the 24-month will be 2.04%. Each of these has a .60 rate bonus added on to the published APY for each of those interest rates. So the stock growth is trying something to deal for us a little bit to make these investments. Any questions on that or feelings about it? This is new for this district, where everyone is feeling good about it. I will work with Michelle to ensure that we look at our fund bounds as longitudinally over the last couple years to make sure that we don't dip too low into our available funds and so we've always got that cash readily available. In conversations with the bank president, he did state that in the case of a disaster event, a weather event, or a collapse route, if we had to pull back CDE situation, they would not penalize us for that. I would, of course, get that in writing first, but that would communicate or lead to a historical meeting. That would be my question. If we absolutely needed it, is it firm and we can't touch it? Currently, the only damage would be penalties to the interest and not to the principal. But again, based on what they're willing to put in writing, and depending on the specific circumstances, there is a possibility they have the option to waive those penalties that they wish. Any questions on that, you guys? Any way we can produce more funds, I really appreciate you going out and looking for and bringing this to us. This is something that obviously we hadn't thought of or hadn't been thought of before. Fairly straightforward. Right now we have a box that I'd say around $700,000 in vital cash that sits and if we use at least a portion of that, and again, we will try to be very sure-footed about how much we put in these CDs, but we can use a substantial amount of that and probably draw, you know, the reasonable amount of interest. Any interest is better than 0%. Absolutely. Any more discussion on that? Creation of multi-purpose facilities, grounds and transportation? Was that an action? That was an action. Yes, because of the amount of money that you were investing I didn't want to prove them from the board to go ahead and do this. Do you have a list of funds to invest in Option 1? I'll second it. It's been moved and seconded to the Idle District Funds Investment Options. All those in favor say aye. Aye. All those at the same time. Motion passed. Thank you Kelly. Creation of multi-purpose facilities, grounds and transportation position. So as I look into my report we may be facing a situation where we may lose personality and medical issues and we're finding multiple gaps in our ability to handle maintenance requests some grounds keeping as well as driving routes for buses and lastly we are outsourcing a lot of simple maintenance of our fleet and our buses that's more expensive than if we were to do it in-house. I would like to create a full-time position so that we can keep all of these jobs here for ourselves and I believe the savings that we would make would greatly offset the cost of the position. We would save quite a bit of money especially in terms of the maintenance and the fleet maintenance and bus maintenance. So I've shared the amount in the report and I want you to know I have 100% confidence that we can keep this person busy 100% of the time all the time and in fact probably have them pick up some additional after-school activity in the house as well. But before I create a position I need permission from the board to do so. Who manages this person? This will be a combination management of myself and Clint Thompson for transportation because transportation is a little bit more specific. I would want his hands in that bucket but as far as the maintenance and support of the grounds I would definitely want to be a part of that management to ensure that we have all these things covered. I feel like we frequently are trying to piece meals and jobs together and find people to do things for like the facilities and the grounds and transportation. Just to give you some dollar figures our rates for bus driver routes are currently anywhere from $19 up to $25 to $26 an hour and this boils down to just a tiny bit underneath $20 an hour. Now when you consider what you would pay for maintenance labor costs for just for having your world changed or changing out of belt or something like that or even some of the facilities and grounds work that we need done we're getting at a much lower rate than what we would pay if we outsource it to the contractor. So that's so it's light maintenance, that's what you're thinking. Light maintenance. Well changes. Well changes, belts, hoses. Okay. Pretty much everything that you would use somebody to fill in all the gas with. And then what on facilities would they be doing? A lot of the maintenance that our current maintenance director does if we're not exposing too much information on that we may need some support that we already currently and so this is an opportunity to train and get our position ready in case we have a situation that may develop later on. And then grounds, what exactly where's the shortfall with grounds where this would be something that we're not already covered with with what we have contracted? So the shortfall in the rounds is that we don't have a written contract with our grounds contract currently. The relationship that was developed was apparently more contract and therefore we are on our way through the end of the mowing season and then we are going to step back and take a look at and dark you have a little more fully the expectations for our grounds keeping what we expect to be done and the cost of reaching those items. Because right now it's when we get the bills it's very difficult to tell what's been done and I'm not necessarily comfortable writing those checks each month until I know exactly what we're paying for in some cases. Now that's not to say that the work that is getting done is a risk quality. It just stands to reason as a manager of the district that I'm 100% sure of what we're paying for when we pay out the door. Jordan, I'm just going to say it seems like a position that was needed for our district with all the dates. I'm sorry I didn't hear that. Oh, I second. I second. I mean it's something that has been I just, I'm going to just trade it off. Sorry Jordan, I can't start mumbling. I just had one day. I'll get there then. It's been moved and seconded. Is there any discussion? I'm assuming winter is also kind of an issue so snow removal will definitely apply to this work. We do have our own snow removal equipment on their site so we can ensure that all campuses get the attention that's necessary, especially in particular weather. Any more discussion? If not, all those in favor say aye. Aye. All opposed, same sign. Motion passed. Sale of Paxco Middle School and our continuation of advertisement contract was approved. So as you're all aware, the initial buyer was able to gain financing for Paxco Middle School so we are at a crossroads of making decisions regarding taking one of the offers of one of the other buyers or potential buyers and or continuing advertisement to see if we can get some additional buyers interested into the property and at this point there's going to be a decision and discussion by the board to determine which direction they want to go whether it is to make a sale for a potential buyer or continue advertisements with Mr. Burke. I said no we could make the decision not to hear because that seems like what you said was accurate. Is that accurate too? We've always allowed the public not to be camping, not to be going out. Anything that you added to the agenda is at the discretion of the board but in the beginning if you have an established community forum then people are allowed in excess of that but it's not a normal approach to have someone request to be on the agenda as part of the discussion of business that's something that the board requested decides on. If that's a change that is the board you wish to make. Also this is more for public clarification. That modular is sitting there because Perry McCompton didn't want it. That is correct. The school district moved the first one. I've got a lot of questions about that. The school district moved the first one I've got it to the site and realized that they didn't have any more room for the additional one and so they left the remaining modular with us and not asked for a refund so they paid for it and didn't pick up it. So it's an artist question what I've seen from one of the proposals was I think it should be as is I don't think we need to report any more money into a property so someone else can buy it if they want it, that's fine if they want to put the money into it, that's fine that should be part of their offer or understood as their offer that's my opinion. I don't know what anybody else feels about that. I think maybe we'll list it somewhere possibly put it up it's done yeah we're going to make it and I don't know what I'm going to do and we want it for this and we don't want it for that and I've had I talked to some other superintendents and said you might be pleasantly surprised at what you get because gymnasium, the mirror part of that building is horrible to say that's the best about this it's an anthem I think if we put it out there I'm sure there's buyers I don't know the cost you can look and see in our bunker that's what they want to do the building is not even close to that size isn't it so let's move on then I don't think we need to worry about it especially in other schools people are going to put it in for a school those kids had no intentions of ever being in our district well that also could be on sale in an auction as well as it could be on a normal scale Steve just to note on that building there is currently a water leak on the east side of the building I contacted the city of Paxicole they checked it out it's a leak on their side of the meter I guess they just had that time to get it repaired it just happens to be right up front yeah hopefully that tree holds up or maybe not Brian he was worried that the valley he didn't want to mess with the valley so it breaks in the road yeah yeah I've seen it too I kept grabbing by it it's still there is that an auction here? are you making an auction? yeah I'll make an auction to be there there's a place in a different place I don't know if it would be the one or the crossroads crossroads real estate we'll make it that the auction or this I don't really want to do it but I've been saying we need to do it and just say it as is where it is you get it here's the building we'll show up to you we'll take you through it if you want to buy it is this just the one talking about the entire city there's a longer wheel don't you for a simple new calling propane down there to make sure it's warm you're going to have heat made to make sure everything is alright we've got a low I told you guys so do you know to put it up for the auction? yeah that was an extra so restate your motion please I would put it up crossroads real estate they seem to have pretty good following and having put it out I'm going to ask them if it's auction or if they want to try to sell it so it's paying to sell it we're covering so that's what we decided to do it was a 3% I think is what he had is that not right? I had the information from I think that's what he said on the sale it was a 3% he kept himself from looking on the side we must have something he had some neverizing I'm very happy I can work with Mr. Brown to get that information from the board that would be appreciated to see this would be fair because I would agree we would only have something I don't know that a motion needs to be I don't know not that but on this we already said sell it but you're making a motion to switch realtors basically is what your motion would be potentially put it for auction as opposed to just advertising all the counsel from Crawford I know that's exactly what's going to say can we just make the motion for it to be put it for auction and then we can discuss with multiple auction companies I'm not sure I agree it's been moved I'll have a second then it falls then it fails okay it's been moved and seconded that we attain crossroads real estate to see whether we should list it or auction the tax criminal school all those in favor say aye those aye motion passes okay I move that we go into executive session to discuss personnel matters of non-elected comma for 10 minutes with a meeting resuming at 644 seconded all those in favor say aye all those opposed same sign oh that should be to include Steve correct and I apologize that should so that should be to include Steve Oliver and Dr. Bitch that's much thank you well all board members are always included in that yes when others are coming in okay we're ready so moving on to personnel does anyone need executive session for personnel if not I'll just make the motion to approve employment Tim Klein as high school boys basketball assistant coach Beth Frank substitute teacher Tim Klein substitute teacher Deborah DeSelms as substitute teacher and the resignation of Jonal Wallace as a bus driver it's been moved and seconded all those in favor say aye aye let's serve it just get ready to vote all those opposed same sign motion passes alright superintendent board members form sure the only things I can add is I've been treated to a lot of great events that I haven't seen for 40 years homecoming things like that it's been very much privileged to see all our campuses operating and our systems rolling and things like that I plan to spend a lot of time on these upcoming weeks with this very important bond package because it's so significant to the district and to the future of usd 329 you can expect me to put it a lot of extra hours of time and effort into that work and I'm just very pleased to see things align and starting to see some tighter collaboration between the campuses and also that's been a very important piece of the work and so we're very encouraged and what we're seeing in the district we've got some momentum and we continue to and we plan on capitalizing on that Kelly Jim's position in front of the next I'll second it it's been moved to the second that we adjourn all those in favor say aye aye


Hello and welcome to Open Enrollment 2024. This presentation is the long program for active employees. I will cover all of our benefits through this presentation. Open Enrollment will begin October 9th and will end October 27th 2023. We will be using our online system CFWBenefits.com to enroll. The enrollment deadline for all plans is October 27th at 11.59 p.m. I do not recommend you wait until the last possible minute as the window will close at 11.59 p.m. All changes you make will be effective January 1st 2024. First, some insurance terms that I will be using during this presentation. First is co-payment. Co-payment is the flat dollar amount you will pay at the provider's office. On the health center plan, this is the amount you would pay at your primary care doctor's office if you are not visiting a health center or at a specialist's office. This also applies to the DHMO plan where all dental visits are covered by the copay. Second is deductible. This is just like your car insurance deductible. This is the amount of money you pay before the insurance kicks in. If you are on the consumer choice plan, all services apply to the deductible before the insurance pays. If you are on the health center plan, the deductible only applies when doing surgeries or things like complex imaging. Third is co-insurance. Once you've met your deductible, then you pay co-insurance. This is a percentage of the bill you are responsible for. Both our health center and consumer choice plans are 80-20 plans, which means you pay 20% of the bill and the city pays 80% of the bill. Finally, all of this wraps together to be the total out-of-pocket maximum. Once you've reached your total out-of-pocket maximum, you no longer pay for services at providers' offices or pharmacies. We will be offering the same two plans for 2024, the health center plan and the consumer choice plan. The health center plan has the free primary care at the health centers and copays for specialists and providers who are not at the health centers. They have lower deductibles and lower out-of-pocket maximums. We have a national network and there are positions available nationwide. The consumer choice plan is our high deductible health plan. You must meet the deductible before the insurance will pay for your medical services. There is a health savings account that goes with the consumer choice plan and you are able to use the health centers at a discounted rate. Preventive care on both plans is covered 100%, so getting your annual well adult exam, well child exam, and a well woman exam are all covered on both plans. However, one thing to be aware of is on the consumer choice plan. If you talk about an issue you are having or if your doctor orders additional tests, those will have a charge. For example, my provider requests that I get a vitamin D test done. This is a diagnostic test and not a preventive test. And if I were on the consumer choice plan, I would pay for that test. On the health center plan, you can go to the health centers for free. Otherwise, all other primary care providers including pediatricians and OBGYNs are covered with a $30 copay. Specialists such as dermatologists, cardiologists, etc. are covered with a $50 copay. This is a reduction in copays from 2023. We do use the et net choice point of service to open access network. And there is no coverage for out of network providers except in emergencies or certain surgery situations. Those on both plans can use our health centers. For those on our health center plan, all visits at the health centers are covered at 100%. We currently have three primary centers supported by five satellite locations. One of the biggest benefits of the health centers is same day or next day appointments. The health centers are not walk in or drop in clinics. These are health centers staffed with physicians and nurse practitioners. For those on the consumer choice plan, you can still go to the health centers, but the cost is a $60 contracted rate if you're going for an illness or injury visit, or else 100% for your well adult visit. The five satellite locations are around the Fort Worth area, including Keller, Burlison and Bedford. The costs are still covered at 100% for those on the health center plan and $60 contracted rate for those on the consumer choice plan. One thing to note is that some satellite providers offices have services that are not covered by our contract, such as Keller has an x-ray machine. If you're on the consumer choice plan and they do an x-ray, you will be charged the contracted rate of an x-ray. The satellite locations may or may not have same day or next day appointments available. They do not hold open appointments for City of Fort Worth employees. 2023 saw the retirement of two long term health center providers, Dr. Reeve and Sherry Pierce. Both were Hugley providers. We now have Patricia Benavides-Nyep working at Hugley. We moved from the Moncree location in June of 2023 and the downtown Fort Worth Health Center is now called Magnolia and is located at 1320 Hamp Health Street, Suite 350. Starting in November, Dr. Courtney Campbell will be the primary care provider there. We are also opening a new health center at the Police Officers Association Building at 100 North Forest Park Boulevard Suite 120. This is across Forest Park from the new City Hall. This facility will open in November and Dr. Mario Mejia will be the provider there. As I mentioned, the consumer choice plan has that high deductible. For 2024, the individual deductible has increased to $3,200 to comply with IRS regulations. The family deductible is remaining at $5,400. You do have to meet the deductible before the insurance starts to pay for claims, which includes pharmacy claims. With the consumer choice plan, you get the health savings account. The city continues to seed the HSA for you. We will contribute $540 for an individual or $1,000 for the family. The maximum you can contribute to your HSA has increased for 2024. As an individual, you can contribute up to $4,150 and $8,300 for family. However, this maximum does include the city's contribution. So the maximum you can contribute from your paycheck will be $3,610 for the individual and $7,300 for family. In big news, we have replaced Acolyte with A-Lite. You may or may not remember that we had Compass three years ago and they changed their name from Compass to A-Lite. We are basically returning to them after three years with Acolyte. They will help you with benefits navigation such as cost estimates and bill of reviews. They can help with clinical decision support and second opinion services. Finally, they can also help you with surgery support, including what to expect before and after a surgery. Throughout the past several years, we have added a number of special programs to the plan. We offer Teladoc, which provides virtual visits. Through Teladoc, you have the option of seeing a provider for an urgent issue or scheduling an appointment in the future. If you decide to use Teladoc for mental health visits, you would receive the same mental health provider each visit. We started offering Hinge Health at the end of last year. Hinge Health is virtual physical therapy, both if you've been prescribed by your physician or just want to work out a minor issue. We've been offering surgery plus for the past several years. They offer a bundled billing for non-emergent surgeries. Their bread and butter are musculoskeletal surgeries. However, they can also see you for a hernia or hysterectomy. They are also our sole provider of bariatric surgeries. Orosti is our soft tissue rehab provider. They do a combination of physical therapy, muscle manipulation, and kinesthetic taping to help you feel better faster after a soft tissue injury. Hello Heart provides blood pressure cups and an app to help you track your blood pressure. You can then provide this information to your doctor on your annual visits to help keep better track of your blood pressure. And they now offer cholesterol support as well. Finally, we have Verda, which we introduced three years ago. Verda helps with diabetes support and reversal as well as weight loss support. Through coaching and diet, they can help you get off your diabetes medications. Optum will continue to be our pharmacy benefits manager in 2024. Under the health center plan, there is a $100 deductible, which begins January 1st. After that costs are on a coinsurance basis with a minimum and maximum. On the consumer choice plan, everything hits the deductible and then coinsurance. For both plans, if you take a maintenance medication, you need to do either mail order or get your three months prescription from Walgreens. There are some medications, opioids, for example, where providers will not allow you to pick up the medication on a 90 day supply. That's fine. And you can continue to pick up your medications on the limited 30 day supply. On the health center plan, medications have a 20% coinsurance with a minimum and maximum cost. This means if you are prescribed a generic medication that is $200, you only pay the maximum of $20. If your generic medication costs less than $10, a ZPAC, for example, you would pay that dollar amount. But for a medication that is $15, you would pay the $10 minimum. The minimums and maximums for mail order or Walgreens are 2.5 of the generic maximum and minimum. So you save a little money with mail order or Walgreens. These are the medical rates for 2024. There was a slight increase in premiums for all plans except the consumer choice plan employee only coverage. For the health center plan employee only coverage, the increase was less than $2 a paycheck. The city continues to offer flexible spending accounts for members. There are two different types, a medical and dependent care FSA. The benefit of the FSA is that you are using pre-tax funds to pay for qualified medical or daycare expenses. A medical FSA is for medical expenses for yourself and your family. In order to participate in the medical FSA, you have to either be on the health center plan or not take the city's insurance at all. You cannot be on the consumer choice plan and use the medical FSA. The medical FSA is like an interest-free credit card. You do have access to the full amount of the funds in January and just pay a remainder back via payroll deduction throughout the year. You can use medical FSA funds for things like copays, deductibles, orthodontia, vision care, etc. If you do not use all of your medical FSA, $570 will roll over into the new year. The rest is use or lose. The dependent care FSA is for daycare for your child up to the age of 13 or an adult who is an adult who is disabled and attends a day program or some sort of dependent care for adults. Dependent care accounts are more like a checking account. You can only get out what you've put in at a time. So if you put in $196 per paycheck but have a $500 bill, you can only get out $196. The dependent care account does not roll over. You must use it in the year or you lose it. For 2024, the contribution limit has not been announced. So we will remain at a maximum of $3,050 for the medical FSA and $5,000 per family for the dependent care FSA. Remember, if you want to participate in the flexible spending accounts in 2024, you must re-enroll during this open enrollment period. The benefit of the health savings account is that it is pre-tax money and as long as you use it for qualified medical expenses, you never pay taxes on the money. You own the HSA. This means if you ever leave the city or change from the consumer choice plan to the health center plan or a spouses plan, any money in the HSA, including the city's contribution is yours. There is no documentation needed when you use HSA money. Health equity will never ask you for receipts regarding your expenses. However, if you were to build up $5,000 in the account and think, ooh, instead of using this for medical expenses, I'm going to buy myself a boat. You can. Health equity will never know. However, Uncle Sam may come knocking at the door to do a tax audit. If you don't have medical receipts to back up the $5,000 claim and sadly, even with a prescription, a boat is not a qualified medical expense. You will have to pay both a penalty on that $5,000 and income taxes, so it isn't advised to use your funds for nonmedical uses. 100% of your money in the account rolls over from year to year, so whatever you don't spend will be there year after year, which will allow you to grow your account. Once you have a minimum of $1,000, you can also start investing your HSA money to increase your account. Once you've reached the age of 65, you can take the funds without a penalty for non-medical expenses, but you would still pay the taxes. To ensure no penalty and no taxes, you need to use it for qualified medical expenses. One other thing to realize about the HSA is that it's more like your checking account. You can only take out what you've put in, so if you have a bill for $700 in January, but all that is in there is the city's $540 contribution, all you would be able to pay would be the $540. You would have to pay the other $160 from your own funds and reimburse yourself later. We still offer the same dental options. We have the DPPO plan with a high and low option. On both options, preventive services are covered at 100% and have a $50 deductible per person. The annual maximum, which on the dental is the maximum the dental insurance will pay, is $1,000 on the low option and $2,000 on the high. Basic restorative care, that's things like your cavities and simple extractions, are covered at 80% on the high option and 50% on the low. Major care, bridges, crowns, inlays and onlays, are covered at 50-50 on both plans. Both plans cover orthodontia and implants. There is a lifetime maximum on orthodontia for the low and high option. On the low option is $1,000 and the high option it's $1,500. We still offer the DHMO plan. This plan has no deductible or annual maximum. You can get all the dental work you need done. However, there is a very limited network and you have to choose a primary care dentist. Everything is paid out on a copay basis, so you know walking into the dentist's office how much these copays are. This plan does cover orthodontia for adults and children, but does not cover implants. Here are the dental rates. They're staying the same for 2024. We have an exciting new offering from IMED for 2024. We are now able to offer a high and a low vision plan option. On the high plan, there's a slightly better contact lens and frame allowances, as well as lower copays for progressive lenses. In addition to the new high option, IMED is offering a better benefit if you go to plus providers. You can identify a plus provider when searching a doctor online. Primarily plus providers will be chain providers such as target optical or lens crafters. When searching for providers online, we are the Insight Network.  For this open enrollment session and going forward, we are pleased to be able to offer you a new maximum of eight times your annual salary to a new maximum of $600,000. For this year, you can enroll in the first time or increase your life insurance amount by one times your annual salary with no evidence of insurability, EOI requirement. Also new this year is an additional amount of life insurance for your spouse. You can elect up to $150,000 for your spouse coverage. If your spouse is enrolling for the life insurance for the first time, they will have to do EOI. If you are submitting evidence of insurability, you will have to wait for that coverage to be approved before coverage will begin. Finally, we have an additional option for your dependent children. They are now eligible for up to $20,000 of life insurance. There is no evidence of insurability requirement for child life insurance. We continue to offer short and long-term disability through UNIM. Disability covers you in the event that you cannot work due to your own accident or illness. For the short-term disability plan, there are four options, a high and low option with a 60 or 40% pre-disability earnings replacement with a 14-day or 30-day wait period. Within the high and low option, there are two different maximum payout times. If you elect long-term disability as well, they will be set up to dovetail so that when your short-term disability ends, your long-term disability starts. We still offer the same long-term disability plans we've offered for several years. We have a 40 or 60% pre-disability earnings replacement with a 90 or 180-day wait. If you enroll in LTD, you will only be offered the elimination period that matches your short-term disability maximum benefit period. For both short-term disability and long-term disability, if you are enrolling for the first time or increasing plan benefits, going from 40 to 60% for example, you will have to be due in evidence of insurability form and be approved by UNIM before the benefit will start. We still offer TIAA as our 457 plan. TIAA does not require an open enrollment period to enroll. You can do so online at any time by going to TIAA.org. The minimum election is $10 or 1% of salary. The benefit of selecting a percentage is that in the event you get a pay increase, your contribution amount also automatically increases. So with every pay increase, you're always contributing a little more to help you save for your retirement. We do have a pension plan which will pay you, but this is supplemental retirement income. Maybe this is money that pays for an RV to tour around the U.S. or cabin by a lake. There are a variety of funds available to contribute to and you can change your fund allocations at any time. For those new to investing or who are unsure, you can enroll in the life cycle funds which allow you to set when you anticipate retiring and the fund will do the correct things for you until you retire. The maximum contribution amount for 2023 is $22,500. Beneplace is our site for some voluntary benefits and discounts like vacation and car rentals. They also have pet insurance, car and home insurance available for discounts. We offer a variety of voluntary benefits available through MetLife. You are able to enroll in them on the CFW benefits website. For healthcare support, we offer a critical illness plan, accident plan, and a hospital indemnity plan. The critical illness plan pays you a lump sum when you experience a critical illness, such as a heart attack, stroke, or cancer diagnosis. They also have a preventive care benefit that will pay you $100 for getting your physical. There are pre-existing condition limits, so for example, if you've already had a heart attack in the past, they wouldn't necessarily cover it on the plan. The accident plan pays in the event you or a covered family members have an accident and seek medical treatment. These can be for things like fractures, burns, concussions, etc. They pay a flat amount based on each situation. And finally, the hospital indemnity plan pays in the event that you are hospitalized. They pay a flat dollar amount per day of hospitalization. There is an additional benefit if admitted to the ICU. The initial admission benefit is limited to one times per year and the maximum number of days the benefit covers is 31. We also offer two legal plans, MetLife Legal and Allstate Identity Protection. With MetLife Legal, you can have access to a lawyer to talk about common legal matters such as estate planning, identity theft, minor civil suits, traffic accidents. The Allstate Identity Theft Protection Service monitors your credit reports and would send you alerts for large purchases or transfers from your accounts. Both are available to enroll on the benefits portal. We still have the wellness program with Virgin Pulse. The premium incentive is still in place. The deadline to complete the three required items to not receive the penalty is August 31 of each year. The three required items are a physician screening form, the member health assessment and the tobacco affidavit. All three of these are available on the Virgin Pulse website or app. The reason we do this is to ensure that you are seeing a primary care doctor and developing a relationship with one. The goal is to find medical conditions before they are a problem. It is always better to find cancer in stage one than stage three or four. To earn the premium incentive, you need to do a member health assessment through Virgin Pulse, a tobacco affidavit, or a tobacco journey if you smoke cigarettes, cigars, a pipe, vape, or use chewing tobacco. Finally, you go to your primary care provider to receive your annual exam. If you cover your spouse, your spouse also has to do the three activities. The deadline for this program is August 31 of each year. If you did not complete your requirements in 2023, 4, 2024, you will see the additional premiums shown here when you log into CFW benefits. If you believe that you have completed the requirements and it is showing on the benefits portal, please contact the benefits office. If you do your three requirements and one additional preventive care screening, you would be eligible to earn points through the Virgin Pulse app for the healthy challenge payout in January. Examples of additional screenings include a dental or vision exam, colonoscopy, various vaccines including the flu, shingles of age appropriate, and initial COVID vaccines. You would then use the app to earn points by doing things like exercising, tracking your sleep, or your eating, attending a wellness sponsored event like the health safety and benefits fair. The city partners with the weight management companies such as Wonder Health and Weight Watchers. Employees and their spouses are eligible to participate in either program if they are on the city's health insurance plan. Weight Watchers can be enrolled in at any time. Wonder Health has periodic enrollment periods. The city sponsors an employee assistance program. They offer six free counseling sessions per issue. They have dedicated staff available 24 hours a day to help you find support. In addition to counseling, resources for living has daily life assistance such as child care or elder care support or help with emergency services. They also offer legal and financial services such as will preparation, budget preparation. They offer 30 minute consultation with a lawyer or a financial planner. The wellness office is here to support your whole well being. They offer exercise classes, workshops, seminars and webinars as well as special events such as periodic blood drives and the heart walk. You can find more information online including information about meetings and more information about the plans. We will be enrolling online through the benefits portal cfwbenefits.com. If you are adding people to the plan who have not been previously covered you will need to upload proof documents to verify relationship. Remember your flexible spending elections do not roll over automatically. If you do not participate in the FSA or do not want to participate in 2024 you do not have to do anything and your coverages will roll over automatically. However if you would like to take advantage of some of our new offerings such as the increased life insurance or the high vision plan or you want to enroll in the FSA you need to go online in a role. The member portal is cfwbenefits.com. If you've never gone online before you would need to click register. If you have any questions you can reach out to the benefits office at<PHONE_NUMBER> or come in and see us in the lower level at City Hall.


Moore's Law is the observation that the number of transistors in an integrated circuit doubles roughly every two years. Colloquially, this is understood as computers getting more powerful at a steady rate, enabling more computational complexity, rendering fidelity, advanced simulations, and AI. Video games are a computational medium as well, and so at the onset of every new console generation, details about hardware make an implicit promise about new kinds of experiences never before possible. This techno-optimism drives the early adoption of new consoles, and permeates much of how we think about the relationship between technology and games. Is this necessarily the case though? Sure, there are games like Super Mario 64, the revolutionized movement and interaction in a three-dimensional space, only made possible by the jump in hardware, but there are also plenty of games at the beginning of a console's lifespan that are just slightly more refined versions of what have come before. hardware does of course frame what is possible on a console, and pushes design in interesting directions. For example, the PlayStation console used CDs as opposed to the cartridge of the N64, granting it more static storage space. However, the N64 had better transfer speed, the ability to load data into RAM. Hence, the PlayStation could have a game like Final Fantasy 7, with hundreds of static background images, with the caveat that it took a while for each screen to load, and also required multiple disks. Conversely, Super Mario 64 allowed for rapid shifts between a hub world and levels, facilitating its dynamic exploratory play. There are other differences of course, but the point is that each of the console's hardware enables specific kinds of design. There is a subfield within game studies that analyzes the intersection of hardware and design, aptly named platform studies. The most prominent work within this is the book Racing the Beam, which documents how the Atari's hardware constraints led to specific kinds of games, and technical challenges when it came to design. Racing the Beam refers to how VCS programmers had to make sure that each individual line of every frame is ready, as the electron gun starts to light up the lines of the TV. Racing the Beam as it travels down the screen. Two games illustrate different aspects of the relationship between hardware and design. Pac-Man for the VCS had many difficulties, owing to how the VCS Pac-Man cartridge has only a quarter of the ROM in Pac-Man's arcade incarnation. Engineering techniques had to be employed to adapt the game, including vertical positioning, horizontal strobing and flicker, used to enable the AI to move in distinct patterns independent of one another. The aesthetic compromises made this port inferior to the original though. However, constraints are not just hard limitations, sometimes they force designers to conjure inventive solutions that can push the medium forward. The Atari VCS could not represent text very well, and so when Warren Robinette tried to adopt the text-based adventure game to create adventure, he had to translate room-to-room navigation in words to a spatial medium. The book states, Robinette's main innovation in adventure was devising an approach to the graphical representation of a player's movement through a complex space. Robinette explained, I had a scheme for adapting the text-dialog of adventure into a video game, used the joystick to move around, show one room at a time on the video screen, and show objects in the room as little shapes. This inspired games like The Legend of Zelda and Ultima, essentially generating a design trend. They continue. Games have moved to 3D, and programmers have become more concerned with polygons than pixels, but movement and collision detection remain the primary building blocks of adventure games. Comparing the PS1 and N64, we see how technology both limits and enables specific kinds of games. And with the Atari, we understand that constraints can both be detrimental, but also inspire creativity that leads to new avenues of design. The relationship between technology and games is thus a complicated one, not simply reducible to a linear or exponential progression, but rife with instances of human ingenuity and effort interfering with the evolution of games. Technology often gets politicized. We saw how Sega's marketing campaign for the Genesis positioned itself as a faster, edgier console than Nintendo's, and this even extended to the design of its mascot, Sonic. Regardless, technology in games is not just a console's hardware specifications. It is also the production technology used to create them. What started as a medium with individual creators quickly turned into an industry dominated by massive corporations, assembling teams of specialized practitioners. Each of these disparate disciplines, from design to animation to sound to programming, has to coordinate with one another to manufacture the games we see today. It isn't as simple as an artist's painting on a blank canvas or a writer jotting down words. Games require more sophisticated production technologies, as computational power continues to increase alongside consumer expectations. In her essay, How We Design Games Now and Why, Catherine Neal outlines how technology and industry has shaped the evolution of game design, first outlining the way large studios produce games, from a pitch to concept art to pre-production and then production. She highlights how the massive scale of this undertaking requires explicit scheduling, costing, and sequential development that makes it vulnerable to shocks or sudden changes in design made way through development. She says, the problem is a conflict of interest between the increasingly demanding needs of production and the needs of design. It was a broken relationship. The production technology of games is not only antithetical to design itself, but creativity. It encourages an unreflexive design by committee approach that plays it safe, inheriting practices without questioning their validity. Despite the rapidly increasing technical sophistication and production values of video games, game design itself remained relatively underdeveloped. The call here is for a more universal language for game design, so that the development process is not beholden to an assembly production. This stage-based process is some chimera, combining the sequential software development of the Waterfall model with a massive engineering project. As we know, though, new production technologies have emerged, chiefly in the independent games landscape. Smaller teams means more decentralized democratic control of a project. Widely accessible game engines made getting into development much easier and cheaper, and digital distribution platforms like Steam allows developers to circumvent the need for publishers and physical distribution. This also bleeds into new design conventions like games as a service, where games can be released in early access and then chained over time, allowing a more iterative model of production. Neal is skeptical of some of these developments, suggesting they are similarly antithetical to creativity. Evolution and innovation is being driven not by intellectual or technological advances in design itself, but by the sheer volume and speed of designs produced and tested, within a design culture increasingly characterized by mass participation game jams and intensive player metrics harvesting. The essence of the argument here is that technology, hardware, software, and production can inhibit creativity by becoming encompassing, substituting genuine understanding. Jonathan Blow mirrors this idea in his talk preventing the collapse of civilization, suggesting our functional competence at interfacing with computers is decreasing as we move further into abstraction in how we interact with computers. The idea that the AAA space lacks in creativity is not novel, but many will contest that the indie space still rewards innovation and design. People have mapped how the costs of game development are also increasing due to the demands of increasing fidelity, but surely the indie sphere is free from these expectations. The problem here is what we even mean by innovation in games. When we talk about the evolution of games, what exactly do we mean? Is it the genesis of new genres, new design conventions, more sophisticated themes? It isn't exactly clear. Moreover, once we do specify the parameters, it isn't obvious what led to the development of certain design trends. As much of what takes place during the production of a game is not transparent to us. Space Invaders has aliens that descend at an escalating speed, but this was a glitch that was kept in the game because it was determined to be more fun. What the designers uncovered by the intersection of hardware, chance, and ingenuity was flow theory. The idea that increasing the difficulty in conjunction with the player's ability keeps them engaged. This innovation then seeped into all games from Tetris to Doom. Was it technology that prompted this revelation? Well, yes and no. The reason the aliens sped up is because less aliens on screen meant more processing power for the remaining aliens, whereas a full screen of aliens slowed down their collective much. It's as if technology itself wanted us to discover this now pervasive concept in game design. But in reality, technology and human ingenuity cannot be separated. The combo in Street Fighter II was a discovery that came out of a bug that allowed players to string moves together because of the dynamics of frame data. Again, serendipity. But in this instance, technology had less to do with presenting us the problem. Bugs can arise, emergence can manifest. A counterpoint to this is to contrast games to other artistic mediums. An essay on the subject of the evolution of games reads, saying that the history of video games is the history of technological improvement is tantamount to saying that the history of literature is the history of writing implements, from Cuneiform to Shakespeare's Quill to David Foster Wallace's Microsoft Word. Word didn't invent infinite just. Such a history mistakes tools for art. Creativity often flourishes under constraints. This is well known by people who study the subject. But necessity is also the mother of invention. Hardware limitations and industry demands might create the context, the canvas for us. But perhaps we should give more credit to the human being. Also, Picasso said we should know the rules like a pro before we break them like an artist. The artist, designer and practitioner aware of their own history and methods is more situated to find valuable solutions to design problems. Hideo Kojima popularized the stealth genre in Metal Gear when he realized the MSX could not handle more than a few sprites. Instead of an action game, he thought of avoidance instead to work around the limitations of hardware he was dealing with. However, the opposite happened with Metal Gear Solid 4. He overestimated the power of the PS3 and conceived of design ambitions that could not be realized with the hardware he was given. They had to scale back some of these ideas and construct a game that worked around what was possible on the system. Considered one of gaming's most notable art tours, we see how even someone as eccentric and creative as Kojima has to conform to the demands of technology as well. Moreover, we see how a model of creativity in games that places so responsibility with the human is also flawed. Games can have the signature of a designer, sure, but they are constructed by hundreds of people. Technology and mechanics isn't what makes Kojima's games notable though. He's revered by many because of his exploration of complex themes about war and colonialism, genes and memes, the military industrial complex and cybernetics. He also exposed these ideas using interactivity, the infamous psycho mantis boss fight, blending games with cinema to create an experience that is more than the sum of its parts. And this in turn reveals a bias in our understanding of the evolution of our own history. Mechanics and genres that derive from them take precedence over themes, emotions, and ideas. This is why some were baffled in called narrative experiences walking simulators. Perhaps if adventure didn't convert text into space, we would have been led down a different trajectory, one where a consensus about games as a form of literature developed. The technological origins of our medium may be framing our analysis of our own history through the lens of technology itself. Mechanics and design innovations are a continuation of the discourse surrounding memory and processing power. It is about abstract systems of logic and interaction, exactly how we think about the computer itself. Literature and cinema have moved past an analysis of innovation through the lens of mechanical formalism and towards integrating those tools with thematic relevance. We think of games as technology first and an art form second, because video games were born out of technological and industrial research and production. AAA companies are making strides in rendering technology and ray tracing and cloud-based processing and workflow. But this is hardly what anyone thinks about when we think of innovation. I could just as easily suggest that there have been few meaningful developments in artificial intelligence in games, in experiences that take advantage of SSDs and streaming technology. Part of this is due to what we explored before. There is a cost and production conflict as games get more technologically advanced, stifling creativity. But also because the question of innovation itself is being asked incorrectly. Doom wasn't the genesis of the first person shooter, or even the perspective, but it inspired countless clones with its design. Technical and artistic ingenuity aside, it was influential. The same can be said for early RPGs like Ultima and Final Fantasy. If we dig deeper though, we see how these two games were influenced by the tabletop game Dungeons and Dragons, which in turn was derivative of both war games and fantasy literature. The jump in Donkey Kong was a specific mechanical innovation, but the actual conceptual revelation, according to some, was a delayed and modifiable response to an input. Half-Life innovated once more with FPS games by creating immersive, set-piece-oriented design with an embedded narrative. But it was a mod for the game that created Counter-Strike and the tactical FPS subgenre, creativity from the top down and then bottom up. In fact, mods, which exemplify low-risk, easy tools and working within constraints, have been instrumental in the genesis of many subgenres. The Battle Royale coming from PUBG, a mod of Arma, and the MOBA, Dota, being a mod of Warcraft 3. The point is, there are many different dimensions across which we can measure innovation and creativity, and the methods by which these come about are not self-evident. So what does a theory of innovation look like in games then? It is one that understands how games are grounded in hardware, software and production technologies, that these are the paintbrushes we use to craft our games, but also abstracts design principles and innovations that are not determined exclusively by them. It sees the human in the machine, in the process, and also separates art from technology and its conception of its own relevance. There are many ways we have tried to do this, mapping specific design innovations, genre birds, situating progress in the context of control, emergence, aesthetics and expression. Ultimately, the question of whether technology determines the evolution of games may itself not be determined. It might depend on whether or not we seize a role for ourselves in the progression of our own art form.