Testing one two three testing Mike one two three Yes, sir. Good afternoon. Mr. Rickerman. Mr. McDowell. Mr. Duvall. President. Mr. Mr. David. Mr. Benjamin. Mr. McDowell is coming in. Mr. McDowell, would you leave us in the invocation as you walk to the altar. I'm sorry the podium. The day is. No, sir. Waiting on you. First of all, let me pray for good. Thank you all for being here today. Let us pray for Lord for all that you've done for us for this day and for all of the hopeful and gracious possibilities you've allowed us to share in. We come to you today as we discuss this our city, one Colombia. We simply ask that you might touch and invigorate us with your presence. Allow our conversations to be one of sensitivity and concerns. Allow your spirit to discern the things that are necessary as our city continues to grow. We ask it in your name. Amen. Amen. Thank you all for your patience. I attended my daughter's middle school award day ceremony, so I had to be there. Try not to miss those moments if I don't have to. So, um, I'll judge my targetness. I'm city manager. Yes, sir. Bear Benjamin Council, we will begin the city council discussion a little bit reordered. I would ask that fire chief Aubrey Jenkins come forward to present the Columbia Richland Fire Rescue strategic plan. Mayor, council members, the city manager. Thank you for this opportunity to come before you. I would tell you this is something that has taken a while for us to get to. Every time we try to kind of work on this strategic plan, things came up of course, 2015 with flood and everything that happened afterwards. I promise you I'm gonna be before you in less than five minutes. Um, so I know you got other auto business attend to today. Um, basically just, um, like I say, this, this is a very important plan to the department. Um, you're always, if you fail, the plan you plan to fail and certainly a strategic plan is you'll roll them out to kind of see where you're gonna be within the next five years. So we have, we have a five year plan now. Um, and the person, the people that help facilitate this plan is the Center for Public Safety Excellence, SIFSA for short. And this, um, group has worked with, uh, folks like the International Association Fire Chiefs, uh, the International City County Management Association, the International Association Firefighters, and the National Fire Protection Association. So, um, and we're, we're glad that they, you know, that we had an opportunity to work with them.  So we're talking about 115 years of rich history. Um, and I would tell you the thing that happened along the way, uh, the first African American, um, firefighters actually was employed by the city fire department 50 years after it started. And so again, we're going strong today for 115 years. This is 150th year. Um, how do we get, get to this plan? This is a community driven strategic plan with external stakeholders. We sent our correspondents to stakeholders and, you know, we didn't know what we were going to get. We sent out a number of correspondents. Uh, unfortunately, unfortunately, you know, we only got eight people from the community, which county and the city to participate in, but it was a good discussion and we purposely didn't involve any fire personnel in their discussion. What we want to know what, what their expectation was from their fire department and they gave us those expectations and also gave us their concerns. So there was expectation and there were concerns, but there was also, uh, things that they liked about the department. So we were very open and transparent about what we did and they gave us some good. I tell you one thing in the document that you may see, um, that I got questioned on that when they, the community expectation will say, well, they think that EMS and fire need to combine. Well, let me tell you, we have no plans to start off on this, you know, at this time, we had no plans for that. That was just one of the community expectations and that was like I said, the whole plan was driven off the community expectations. Um, that we solicit from them. Then we did our internal stakeholders, which consist of all ranks in the fire department and we had some very good discussion those three days to put this plan together based on what the information that we got from the community. So we looked at ourselves through the SWAT, which is the strengths, the weakness, opportunities and threats and we just came up with all those, uh, you know, just everything that went into this plan we came up with and we talked about it and what we did after we identified those things and then we are put the document together with Sipsy. We looked at nine goals and out of all those nine goals, we got, we got objectives in all those goals and we got a timeframe on it. We purposely did not assign these, these goals to anybody at this time. We're going to be having a negative meeting to assign these goals so we can start moving toward our, our, um, accomplishments. So also in the back, we have a glossary of terms, acronyms and initiatives. So basically this is all, this is our plan. I just wanted to kind of introduce it to you all. Kind of tell you how we got there, the resource that we use. I'm quite sure you got a copy of the document. If you have any questions, I bet answers a question, but I think, personally, I think this is a good plan.  But most, most importantly, it was a, it was input from the community on their expectations of our department. And I just believe that the men and women of our department are up for meeting those challenges. And lastly, what we're going to do is actually we're going to be posting in all of our stations our mission goals and values. It's going to be on far bigger than just to go on the wall. So in a constant mind, all our employees are what we're all about. So I just want to kind of just introduce that to you all. Hopefully you have read through it. If you haven't, please read through it. If you have any questions, certainly I'd be glad to answer. Well, we did get an advanced copy. I look forward to reviewing it in depth and following up with you on it, chief. Thank you all. Yes, thank you. Actually, any questions? I'll be glad to answer those questions even once you review it. Awesome. All right. Thank you. Thank you, Bob. Thank you, chief. Thank you, chief. Our next item for discussion is the Hampton Street and Calhoun Street Road Diet Concept Reports. Mr. David Beatty, professional engineer and program management director for HDR. Good afternoon, council. My name is David Beatty. I am representing the Richland Penny program. And want to come to you today and present two potential road diets on Hampton and Calhoun streets. And the one question that we're asking for you today is will you allow us to move forward and present the concept to the public? So with that, I'll get right into the presentation. So we're talking about Calhoun and Hampton streets. In the Richland County referendum that passed in 2012, there were 87 identified bicycle routes. Now we have reviewed all the different ways to accommodate bicyclists on these 87 routes. And we identified about seven routes that could be modified in a road diet, which a road diet is often reducing the number of lanes and or reducing the width of the lanes. So oftentimes in transportation, we reduce four lanes down to three lanes. And so that is a road diet. So that's what we're talking about today. We identified seven initially. We've narrowed that down, but today we're only talking about Calhoun and Hampton. We want to approach two at first, see how that process goes, and see how it's received before we move on to developing any other potential road diets. We've been meeting with city staff for well over a year now on this subject. And I want to appreciate and publicly compliment your staff and the great communication that we've had between county staff, the Richland PDT, and city staff and get into this point. So it's been a great work in relationship to date. But we've identified that Calhoun and Hampton have the potential to be dieted, if you will. And on this next slide, what we've got most often on a lot of Hampton and Calhoun, we have four travel lanes, two in each direction. And these lanes are nine feet wide. So oftentimes, when you're traveling on Hampton or Calhoun, because the lanes are only nine feet, you shy away from the parked cars on your right, or you may shy away from the car that's traveling in the same direction with you. Or if you're in one of the middle lanes, you don't want to hit mirrors with someone that's approaching you. So effectively, you encroach into the adjacent lane, so that you really don't have two lanes effectively going in each direction. Then also on Hampton, a lot of times, if there's a car that's stopped and turning left, they block the lane behind them. So effectively, the road operates as one lane in each direction and a middle turn lane, although it has four lanes. So what we're proposing on both Calhoun and Hampton is to remove one lane and restripe three lanes at 11 feet. We could accommodate a dedicated bicycle lane on each side. However, to get those widths, we're recommending that you remove parking on one side of the street. And preliminarily, we've identified the north side as the side that would have parking removed. So I've explained how we would go from 9 to 11. It increases traffic capacity by doing this road diet. It accommodates bicyclists, but the negative is, we're recommending the removal of on-street parking on one side. Would that be the north or the south, David? It would be on the north side on both Calhoun and Hampton, and the termini that we're talking about is on Calhoun, beginning at Wayne, near the Vista Greenway, and going all the way to Hardin. Now, the first two or three blocks on Calhoun, we would only use Sherrows, which is basically pavement marking, directing the traffic and the bicyclists to share the lane. And so on Calhoun, from Wayne all the way to Hardin, we would recommend removing 30 total parking spaces on the north side. Now on Hampton, it's a little bit of a different matter. We would begin the study at Maine and go all the way to Hardin, but because there's more spaces, we would be recommending removal of about 90 spaces, which again, they're all on the north side. Now, what we've done is we have presented this concept, and to date this is only a concept. We have gone out and we've measured the roadway width. We know the widths. We know the lanes. We know the number of parking spaces. So that's the amount of study that's been done to date. We've not started any design. And what we're proposing to you is we would like to go to the public, and we've already coordinated with the Greek Orthodox Church. They would allow us to present this idea June 28th and get the public's input. So we have already presented this concept to Richland County Council, and they have agreed with us partnering with your staff to conduct a public meeting and present the concept to the public. So at this point, we're not asking for your approval of the concept. We're asking for your approval to allow us to present it to the public, get their input, and then we'll come back to you with a summary of the public meeting and recommendations for the path forward. May I? Please, Mr. Adele and Mr. Davis. And I know all of this has to be conceptualized and visualized. I guess the question that I, we're removing X number of parking spaces. How does that impact either the turning in from your left or your right into the spirit center? We'll let impact that in any way. It really would not have an impact on the traffic flow. That's from Wayne to Hardin, right? Wayne to Hardin, okay. So the short answer is I don't think that would impact your turning movements or impact safety of turning movements when we do these road diets. Okay. The road diet, of course, is enlarging the width of the lanes. Yes, sir. And that's a diet. The diet is we're going from four lanes to three. So that's the diet, four lanes to three. But then we are expanding the three lanes from nine to 11. So as you're traveling, you won't have that shy distance requirement or condition that exists today. Okay. I'll be certainly interested in seeing that and getting the public's input on that. Thank you, Mr. Davis and Ms. DeVyre. I was just wondering the reason for selecting these streets or arteries is what? Well, there's two primary reasons. It was included in the county 2012 referendum. It was identified as a bike route. And it's also both these routes have been identified in the Columbia walk bike plan. So it was identified in both plans for some type of bicycle accommodation. Um, are there plans to look at some other arteries? Yes, there are. Um, the primary two other arteries that the penny is looking at would be a portion of Washington Street as well as, uh, I think that's a primary one. We've also considered college and Pendleton. Can you go back on your slide to the first slide that's got those listed? So the primary one would really be Hampton and Calhoun. We're talking about today and then probably the number seven is identified as Pickens, Washington, Wayne, but it's primarily Washington. And then probably the other one would be, um, the Pickens Street is a potential. And it would be a mix of road diet and Cheros. And we've done no studies yet of those. So Pickens as well as, um, Calhoun and Hampton. And, um, please. So at the end of this, um, testing of the model, how soon would you be coming back over, receiving input from, uh, folks in other parts of the city that have the same challenges that you have on Hampton and Calhoun? I would imagine, and this is just my thoughts. If we conducted the public meeting June 28th, we would give the public a couple of weeks after that to mail in comments so we could summarize them early July, depending on your schedule, get back to you in July or August with the results and the recommendation. If it were favorable to move forward, then we could implement the project. We could begin this fall or into early 2019 until the actual construction would start. Mr. Davis wants to know when you kind of know what the bell with. I'm looking at other parts, really other parts of the city. Ah, okay. So Jesus did the penny projects right here, right now. Yes, sir. So I'm only talking about Richland penny projects. But my guess is if we, if we're able to move forward here, show the success, we'll be able to, I think, make, make the case in other parts of the, of the, of the city. That would be my thoughts. And that's why we're recommending that we take a bite at these two projects today, see how the public meeting goes, and then implement those. And it could be a, an example for the rest of the city. I just, I'm just, it would be interesting to me to know why the folks with the penny tax made that decision with the other parts. You know, the penny contributions came from all parts of the city. The best that I can answer that is the, the study committee prior to 2012 that was composed of 39 citizens put together the entire penny tax referendum. And that, that time they included the 87 different potential bike routes throughout the county, primarily in the city. So that list was identified and put on the 2012 referendum. And that's what we've been challenged to implement. Yeah. They, they was the messenger. Not, not, you know what they're doing with messages. I'm the, Ms. Devine. Concern I had, or not concern, but when you go to the public, I know that Hampton, Pickens to Harden, there are several law firms there. And I just know that just hearing that as a public hearing, they may not actually notice and realize that it affects them, but we'll be getting the calls when parking gets removed. So can you make sure that specifically businesses within that area get a letter or someone follow up with a call to make sure that they're part of the meeting? Yes, ma'am. We've coordinated with your staff and what we're proposing to do is send out letters to each of the properties along the corridor. We plan on doing a media release and we also plan on putting up yard signs along the route, advertising the public meeting. So if the litmus test is successful, we have an opportunity then to look at the other six areas or we look at this as multi branches branching off into other areas. My opinion is it would be looking at all of the other opportunities where the county and the city have projects that overlap. So there's really only a couple of more county funded projects that we could overlap, which is independent of anything else the city chooses to do on their own. So if Calhoun and Hampton went well and both bodies were interested in moving forward, then we could come back and look at a couple more county funded projects. Will there be penny monies available, you think? I do think so, yes, sir. All right. All right. Thank you. So we just need to give a high sign and then we'll vote at work session just a nod, a wink. Yeah, we forget about it. All right. Thank you, David. Let's move forward with that public notification that you just made at the public meeting. Thank you. All right. Thank you, David. The next city council discussion item is a presentation in conjunction with the Columbia Urban League in regards to the Science Technology Enrichment Program, our summer program that we always participate in. And Mr. Randy Davis, our Parks and Recreation Director will lead that discussion. I want to make sure I'm sure Randy will do this anyway that we acknowledge Mr. JT McLaughorn, who is Director of the Columbia Urban League and here with us today. Good afternoon, Mayor, Council City Manager. I'll come before you this afternoon to get your support for a continuous partnership that we've had with the Urban League, formerly the SWELT program, now entitled STEP, which stands for Science Technology Enrichment Program. And this program wants to kick off next week. He's going to come in his own way and share with you the valuable experience that we afford young people the opportunity to have in working in some of our departments throughout the city. Currently we have approximately 144 young people signed up and various throughout various departments in the city willing to take on the challenge of exposing our young people to a number of different career opportunities that they may be familiar with or they may not be familiar with some. So I'm going to ask JT McLaughorn, Executive Director of Urban League to come before you and share with you the valuable experience that young people gained from the opportunity to have with the City of Columbia. Good afternoon, members of Council, Mayor, City Manager, staff. I just want to thank you all for your support over the past, I guess three decades or more. And I was just reflecting on our community. We got a lot of violence in our community. And I don't know how you all feel, but so many of us have become somewhat numb to the violence. And I remember back in the 80s, we started the Summer Jobs Program. Just tried to compete with violence, giving kids an opportunity not to get caught up in games and violence. And that says there was ever need for a vigorated program is now. We have too much violence everywhere in our community. And it's going to impede our economic progress because folks don't want to invest in communities where violence is out of control. Even our law enforcement is doing an excellent job. They can't solve the problem by themselves. It's going to take a lot of moving parts. And we think this particular program is going to be real important in young people connected. All the research, evidence, best practice, data talk, and discuss the importance of work experience and the order development of young people, work ethics, give people responsibility, give them something to look to. The Harvard professor, distinguished professor, Dr. William Julius Wilson wrote a commentary when he was at the University of Chicago some 30-plus years ago. He talked about when work disappears. And we've got communities now where young people live and that no one's working. And he talks about the implications when work disappears. What's the implications going to have on young people? So we've got to really bring young people back into the game of work experience. And importantly today, the John Center for Political Studies did a report on underserved communities relative to technology. And what they determined that most underserved disadvantaged communities kind of gravitate to the service sector of our economy. And that's one of the fastest sectors that's automated. They've been to a McDonald's lately and go in there and they got a kiosk machine. In fact, I had someone at church the other day I was having a conversation, where are you going to work this summer? I put a job application at McDonald's, but I haven't heard anything. So wow. It used to be a time everybody could fall back on McDonald's. I'm using McDonald's. We're just fast food places in general. The service sector of our economy, those jobs are automated quickly. And so it's imperative that we prepare young people and an underclassed communities for these jobs. The Luminau Foundation, a think tank that talked about by year 2025 that 6% of our workforce must have post-secondary education credentials. Now we change our focus to technology. We got to get young people embraced. I want to really express my appreciation to Mr. Davis and particularly the city manager, because the city of Columbia has identified about 150 job slots for young people to work this summer and all of them will be exposed to technology. That's really important. Universal South Carolina is doing the same thing and other job sites that we have, we've asked everyone to do the same thing. I was telling someone, I was watching TV yesterday, I think it was yesterday at one day and Curtis Wilson was over at the Bullsby complex and he was leading with a company called Kebgenamine. I think it's a software company that does products for the insurance company. It was interesting because the person he was interviewing said, you know, we got a lot of technology jobs and we're looking for good people. And we're looking for people from USC, Clemson and MUSC. I said to Councilman Davis today, I said, you know what, we're going to have to go there. We got a lot of new people coming to Columbia. We got to let them know we got Benedict College, we got Columbia College. I know he didn't mean at home and that's as you know, but we got to let people know throughout this community that they are also qualified for technological job opportunities. So we had sent a request to the city manager office requesting about $100,000 for the program, serving around 250 young people. Now we do get money from the water utility bill and we have been talking about a social media program like a GoFund or something because we really appreciate the city support, but we do think that the city authorized this check off on the water bill several years ago. I think that if we promoted, in essence, that we could raise problem, a majority of the funds through that effort, you know, because if everybody on your water system gave $1 in essence, that would be enough to fund the program, you know. But I want to thank you all for your support and your commitment to all people in Columbia. Thank you for what you're doing, Mr. Mayor and members of council and promoting economic development in our community. I'd be happy to respond to any questions. Thank you, JT. This transition towards STEM and STEAM is so important as we adjust for a disarrabbly changing world. So we appreciate the leadership of the Urban League. Continue to. Okay. Ms. Dean posted an application two-week camp for rich one students, I think 10 through 13. That's not this. That's something separate. Yeah, we have, we have three initiatives going on and that 10, 11, 12, 13, you got to be 14 years old to work because of child labor laws. So this is for young people there in a STEM oriented work experience type experience. Okay. Yeah, it's just a two-week camp, 10, 11, 12, and 13. All right, Mr. Mayor. Thank you. I got my state, JT, today. Sure. State of Black America today. State of Black America. I did arrange some copies. We were featured in the State of Black America, the Columbia Urban League, and we did win the Case Competition. It's a national competition. We had young people who compete last year at the National Urban League Conference. We beat out Chicago, Houston, and some others. I think it was Philadelphia in essence. So our young people from Columbia, South Carolina, we won first prize. And then the State of Black America is geared this year to technology. And we were selected to do one of the essays and talked about the imperative of technology for underserved communities and populations. Thank you. Fantastic. I'll leave some of these here. Thanks, JT. Mr. Mayor, we'll continue our discussion and ask Mr. Davis to come back up. We're going to have a very important update for council on our 2018 summer camp program. I know Randy is going to make some really key introductions of some wonderful new staff and team members that we have and wanted to brief you all on the exciting things they have planned for this summer. Good afternoon again. The staff with me today have been working diligently in the planning, preparation, and training focused since January 2018 in preparation for our summer camp program. The overview of our summer camp program is the philosophy of play in that we want to empower children and encourage emotional and physical development through fun and educational programs that build a positive sense of self. So that is the overview of the program. The eligibility is children ages five by June 1st, 2018 to age 12. We have two teen camps, one at the Book of Washington Heights Center and one at Emily Douglas or the two teen camps. The remaining centers again are the camps age 5 to 12. The camps are structured in a various category, age categories for appropriate programming. And again the staff I have with me today will share with you more details in terms of the training and the preparation and the planning that's been going on in our department since January 1st. And they're going to, I'm going to ask Mr. Cary Rich to come up and give some comments as well as Christie Wright. Cary Rich is the Recreation Superintendent for the Recreation Division and Christie Wright is the Assistant Superintendent within the Recreation Division. They're going to share with you and as well as introduce additional staff that's been involved in the training. Good afternoon. To ensure the safety of all of our children and to ensure that it's a first priority and enhance the overall experience for patrons in our part, we've completed a series of different trainings throughout the year. First and foremost, we did the DSS child care training in which I'll go in further detail on the next slide. We also completed the first aid CPR, AED training. Also in April of 2018, we completed an all staff training where we changed the culture and also focused on customer service. We also had active shooter training in May of 2018. Our summer camp organizational training day we currently had in May 2018 where we focused on our out of school time training manual, which I'll go into further detail throughout the presentation. We also had our darkness to light training, bloodborne pathogens training, and our summer feeding training. Here, June 6 through the 8th, we'll be concentrating on our new hires and our seasonal staff where they'll go in to receive organizational training along with first aid CPR, AED training. Our DSS training, we partnered with the South Carolina Center for Child Care Development to provide our staff with 20 hours of child care training. We focused on several different areas, child care development, program administration, curriculum and activities, child guidance. We also focused on the professional development side of the house along with health and safety and special needs. Again, to reiterate what Mr. Davis has spoke about earlier with this training, our recreation staff were now certified to be able to supervise children beginning at age five in our weekly summer camp program, but under no circumstances will any child be accepted under the age of five. I'll now turn it over to Mr. Carewitch to talk about some of the additional staff that we'll have. Excuse me. Let me ask you a follow-up question. That last sentence was that the children's age starts at five. Yes, sir. My five is not higher. I'm sorry? My five is not higher. Okay, so for age five we decided we decided as a as a department that those children that are already grade school children that already attend grade school kindergarten, age kindergarten, that they've already completed at least one year of grade school so that on top of the training that we already have those children that are age five have siblings that are older so that now that we are certified we will be able to have the opportunity to allow those parents to bring those students as well since we're certified under child care. So they are age five and have attended kindergarten? With their age five prior to June 1st they're able to attend as well but most of the children that's that come to our parks throughout the summer have probably already attended a grade school pre-k or five-year-old program prior to. Maybe this is perhaps in another slide. What's the ratio students to teachers? In that slide right before that one? Yes. We about to get to it? No, we passed. I can go back to that. So ages five to 12 will have a ratio. My machine messed up and I couldn't see it. Okay, yes. Ages five to 12 will have a one to 12 ratio and then ages 13 to 17 which Mr. Davis indicated which would be our teen camps which is Emily Douglas and the Katherine Villefield Center they'll have a ratio of one to 15. All right. You're welcome. Good afternoon, Mayor. Good afternoon, City Council, City Manager. Before I speak to the additional staff before I speak about the district coordinates I just wanted to first of all offer a heartfelt thanks to the City Manager for extending us extra staff. We've been challenged in that area especially thanks to Ms. Benjamin and HR staff for expediting the process so that we were able to get staff quickly on board and get ready for the summer. Before now we had no room or no margin for error. A margin for error was paper thin or even zero when it came to staff and then if one called it was a mad shift or major shift and I'm now having the extra staff allows us to have a little bit of cushion and allows us to be able to operate as smoothly as possible. The additional staff centers around three key new positions, the parks and recreation district coordinators, the three parks and parks and recreation district coordinators that will supervise assigned recreation centers. These district coordinators duties are to provide oversight and supervise recreation division employees in charge of the recreation centers and neighborhood parks. This summer camp, the district coordinators will monitor enrollment, the age of participants, staffing, program curriculum and ensuring the day-to-day policies and procedures being adhered to. Ultimately it gives us the daily accountability that's needed regarding the aforementioned and more importantly this is their only job. This is their sole responsibility so they won't have any shared responsibilities but to make sure our parks operate in the way they need to operate from a compliance standpoint and if I could quickly just introduce our new district coordinators first. We have Ms. Courtney Proctor Bates. Ms. Bates comes from New Jersey and she brings a ton of experience working in the state of New Jersey. She has family here and while moving to South Carolina to get closer to her family we also had a job opening simultaneously so it ended up being a perfect fit for Ms. Proctor Bates to be here with us with the City of Columbia. We're so proud to have her with us. Second we have Mr. James McCord. He's a district coordinator and Mr. McCord has been with the City of Columbia Parks and Recreation for about 20 years. He brings a plethora of experience. He has law enforcement background that supports him and that was one of the main things that attracted him to us when it came to applying for the job because he's black and white. He's not going to budge and we needed that type of supervision when it came to to our staff so we're happy to have Mr. James McCord in the capacity of district coordinator. And lastly we have Ms. Tracey Chapman. Ms. Tracey Chapman also brings about 20 years of experience to the position. She's worked at various parks at various different levels so she brings an insight and perspective that's needed for this particular position and we're also excited to have Ms. Tracey Chapman. We also have another staff member that's not here, Ms. Camilla Sapson and she's our safety coordinator and this position plans, coordinates, implements and oversees and administers a comprehensive employee safety and compliance programming accordance with the requirements of Parks and Recreation department. She also brings a ton of experience to the department. She's been really, really good and insightful with some of the trainings she's brought to the department. Carrie, what's her past experience? She comes to us from Richland County Recreation and she was therefore, she was their compliance director did a terrific job for them so she, we're happy to have her with us also. We're, we're eager to move forward. We're, we're eager to attack the summer. We understand the elephant in the room. We understand what happened at Lord Park. We're, we're not running from it. We're prepared and when you're prepared it makes you a little bit more excited. It gives you the confidence and because of the training Ms. Crystal Wright has done a terrific job of spearheading our efforts and the one thing that I've constantly said to our staff is that we can't operate in fear. If we operate in fear then we rob our kids. We rob our communities of opportunities. We rob our youth of, of exposure. We rob our seniors of exposure. So we understand Ms. Wilson constantly reminds us that it's, it's not a dress rehearsal and I've always been excited about gang time and for me it's gang time. We're excited. We're going head on and we're prepared and we're excited. I'll turn it over to Ms., Ms. Wanda Austin who's our recreation, not a recreation coordinator as well. Resource coordinator, excuse me. Ms. Wanda also brings a lot of experience who wears a, wears many, many hats for us. Good afternoon everyone. I'm going to talk about our summer staff that we have working in our parks. As Christy Ms. Wright said before, our ratio for our five to 12 year olds is one to 12 and for our teens it's one to 15. So within our parks we have different maximum capacity for the kids in the camp. For our community centers we have up to 60. We do 70 at Greenview because it's a great demand at Greenview and at our smaller parks we do 25 to 30 and our smaller parks is what we call our neighborhood parks. It would be male role Sims which is like one room buildings so that we would be overcrowded in those buildings and so for those parks we do 25 to 30 students at the max and we have summer staff staff that we hire. We do one coordinator for the community centers and four park a summer park a and for Greenview we do one summer staff a leader and five camp a because of the 70 ratio kids we have there. We also have our part time staff or full time in the summer as to help out with our neighborhood kids that are walk-ins because we do not stop the neighborhood kids from coming in. So our permanent staff are there to do programming for the kids that are there in the neighborhood so they'll have some activity as well. Yes sir. How many parks do we have open and how many do we have open last year? We have a total of 14 parks total building-wise capacity this year we're going to have 12 well 13 open because one of us being remodeled so we moved that part to one of our other parks South Attisville. Hampton Park is being remodeled so we moved it there building in the operation to South Attisville Park and the same amount of numbers were opened last year as well. Well I'm I recognize the elephant in the room also do you three feel comfortable that we have enough staff on duty this year to properly supervise the students that come to our parks? We feel comfortable that we have the amount of staff coming in to occupy the elephant in the room as we speak because we'll have more adequate staffing throughout all of our parks and we will have a cap on how many kids we can have at each park and our district coordinators will be out to make sure that everything is going according to our SOP that we have in line now so we have a lot more people out there in the field to make sure that everything is present and accounted for that we have supplies that we need we have proper staffing that we need and that everything is in the quarter and that makes sure that there's enough staff to handle the summer camp as well as our neighborhood children as well yes sir we feel very very very confident of that. The district coordinators we've got three district coordinators are these park districts do did we establish districts for the park separate from the district for the council members? I'll let miss superintendent talk about that. In one district Miss Courtney Park Debates will she will manage a supervised Hyatt Park, Woodland Park, Edisto Park, Hapton Park and Sims Park. Let me just say this week when it came to assigning the district coordinators to the different districts we were very strategic in terms of how we wanted to do it. With Miss Park Debates she's new obviously and we wanted to assign her to a district that was that was heavy and experienced those those parks in that particular district have seasoned staff members recreation leaders they've done a terrific job of taking ownership of not only the parks and facilities but they have great relationships within their communities so we thought it helped in the transition with someone new coming to that particular district. With Mr. James McCourt who will supervise Pinehurst, Lorick, St. Anna's and Emily Douglas even though he's worked at many different locations within the city of Columbia Parks and Recreation he comes from us comes to us from Pinehurst Park and because of the familiarity because of the insight and connection that he shares with the with the community and the community partners we wanted to make sure we didn't separate that we wanted to keep some consistency right there. And lastly Miss Tracy Chapman in her district Greenview MLK Melrose Heathwood Busby. Tracy's also been a constant in the Greenview community especially with our senior exercise program we certainly wanted to make sure we kept her connected to that area but also because of her familiarity and insight that she shared for the Greenview the Greenview area that's just one of the parks but we were we're very strategic in terms of how we try to assign the districts supervisors to different districts. There's a lot of distance between those parks all right if they've moved my slides Rob I can't tell you the ones I'm talking about but it's irrespective it's obviously irrespective of geography and more so around staff and systems and and training so that's here we are it doesn't have anything to do to answer your question Mr. DeVall about you all's council districts and proximity of locations within your council districts it has much more to do with the need for certain skill sets in certain locations and also trying to balance the load so to speak of a MLK and a Greenview with a very seasoned person who's been used to handling those major community centers and also some of the other challenges maybe even community challenges that some of our other parks or recreation centers have with the skill set of the individuals who are used to and have had the experience of dealing with not just our employees in those communities but the citizens in those communities and the different needs that vary between those locations. In terms of the operating hours Monday through Thursday 10am to 9pm and Friday 10am to 8pm open to the public however we understand that we have to do everything decent and in order and so for the public there will be posted signs of times in which the gym will be available or the activity room will be available for their engagement in which would be separate from the instructor program that we're doing for our summer camps so we will have full-time and permanent and full-time part-time permanent staff available to accommodate the general public as well as the proper staffing ratios to accommodate our summer camp program so the public will have to get used to the structure that's in place in terms of availability and use of space in the facilities whether it's a gym or whether it's an activity room that's that's the only way we can control the numbers if you will. And Randy it is very important I mean there's no elephants in the room so let me just say that we operate based off what is most safe with any institution any organization when there's a incident that's occurred it's a it presents an opportunity to re-evaluate and so what we've tried to do going into this summer not only reinforce and take the opportunity to enhance and it's truly an enhancement we have very capable staff in City of Columbia Parks and Recreation to enhance their abilities with the trainings that have been outlined but to also acknowledge that with just the world we live in there are things that happens predators among us active shooter incidents etc so many of the programming changes this the changes that Randy and the staff are going over have even more to do with us being extremely safety conscious and meeting safe hat with CPD and others to ensure that our facilities are being maintained not just from a staffing perspective and training that we need to do internally but also recognizing that there will be people or incidents that come from the outside which is what has happened previously that we have to take further precautionary steps to ensure that we are making sure our babies and our children who are coming to our city parks and their families are safe and that's it I mean that's what it's about that's what it's always going to be about from my standpoint I appreciate the fact that we've had additional training but also just an adherence to protocol the challenge that we've had many times in the past is that compassion plays a role here and we recognize the larger role we have in helping raise the community's children and you can't deviate from that so I mean it's fine yeah it really is so excited about the the way forward thank y'all for your dedication to thank you Teresa mr mr. McDowell yes the thing that I guess the thing that I want to be comfortable with the levels of ratios we looked at one to 12 and one to 15 and one to 25 based on all that we know based on all that we know safety of course becomes a tremendous issue in a life of any part I think we've done an exceptional job bringing in new folk restructuring adding on some some new parameters but the bottom line still is safety and I think I want to be comfortable with one to 15 I want to be comfortable with 125 I don't know if that involves other folk who might play into those ratios because I think the fabric of this city and this council simply says we want our children safe that's to be safe to have a good time and to walk away with some real lasting experiences so I want to be safe so if there's a need at some point in time for us to decrease the ratios or add an additional persons I think we need that kind of latitude and we need that kind of I think it's what Ms. Wilson is saying the emphasis is safety and if we allow something to happen and it happens because we did not have enough personnel then we're going to find ourselves in a real quagmire for all the questions these teeth is totally capable more capable than me and as the expert and answer them but I but I do have I feel compelled to say to your point Reverend doubt that the institution of in the implementation of of the district coordinators really should not be minimized that is a difference from last summer in my expectation and I don't know if I have said it every kind of way and I'll keep saying it but I don't think I need to because I think those three individuals that have been chosen really get it but that's their job to recognize that on any given day at those parts that are under their purview that they need to be you know raising their hands and shouting and saying I need more support here if I don't you know if there's a staffing issue we have added a significant amount of staff I don't anticipate that will be an issue and there is no one in 25 just to be clear but that's a maximum number that 25 is a maximum number of children I'll let Randy and those talk about that or clarify it the ratios are the one in 12 and the one in 15 but I think we have more than enough now to to you know really be well within those ratios good I'm glad to hear that because it at least gives us an additional layer it's an additional layer protection and their eyes and ears are to be there every single day all right let me just say root our coordinators keep your eyes open and if there is things that we need to do you need to remind us say to us with vehement voices we need your help that a deal at least give me a head nod or something thank you sir thank you councilmember Dowell I just want to let Christy write say a few words to to your concerns and I will assure you that the training that we've been through and the preparation that staff have been going through you know for this summer is probably the most stringent in the state okay we're well below the the standard from the state standpoint it's typically one to 15 we're one to 12 so she can tell you a little bit more thank you um miss Wanda pretty much did a really good job when she was describing our staff to child ratio for our community centers where we have 60 or at least 60 campers the summer camp coordinator is one of our permanent staffing members that we currently already have that has already gone through the 20 hours of dss training so outside of just that one summer camp coordinator that's with the children they'll also get that summer camp leader along with camp aides as well when you when mr davis was speaking about the the programming within the park during summer time our permanent and part-time staff that we have along with the additional hires that mr rich went into great detail about they'll also be monitoring the grounds they'll also be inside ensuring that we have structured activities along so we have several different components as far as staffing and ratio is concerned to be able to address the needs of the public for the summer you're welcome i just have two more slides i'm going to be very quick i know time is of essence um thank you thank you real quickly um summer summer activities throughout the summer that's going to be going on we do have an entrepreneurial camp in partnership with the gentleman out at green view park um paul smith this is his second year since um since i've been working with the city that he's um put on the entrepreneurial camp but i think he's done it in the previous years as well drills and skills july 16th through the 20th football golf and cheerleading will be going on in august 6th through the 10th tennis soccer and basketball summer concert series began on this past saturday of the atlantic star so over 3000 people were in attendance it was probably the biggest crowd i've ever um um had the experience of of watching one of our summer concerts r&b atlantic star and prime time in the park will begin june 22nd um in june at various locations the first one is a pool party at green view park july 13th badges and parks basketball at loret park in august 3rd in the summer on pool bash at maxi gray movies in the park the first one this was this past friday it was rained out emoji the movie but uh hopefully peter rabbit will not be rained out okay um our proposed free swim days take place at greenview park every monday from one to six and maxi gray park um every friday from one to six and during those early morning hours the pools will be set down for for maintenance routine maintenance randy thank you thank you kerry christie wonder all of our new district coordinators i'm very pleased at you know the level of importance the team is placed on this summer and and and their daily responsibilities still moving right along so if there are no more questions ma'am thank y'all thank you our next and welcome our next discussion item is our employee retiree health care program is pamela benjamin human resources director and chief of staff will take us through many of the items we've already started discussing my battery went i'm sorry my battery went dead it's plugged in so i don't know what's wrong mine too so yeah i think powers seems to be an issue up there but it support is headed your way mr barn um let me say as miss benjamin prepares for her discussion points that we know that the subject matter is complicated okay we're we have not tried to breeze over it by any means um we've actually been talking about it for a very long time on multiple occasions with you all i do think it's very important as the public um employees retirees begin to now recognize that the discussion is occurring that they also understand that this discussion matter and the content of it affects individuals very differently so you cannot um make blanket statements and assume that one your retirement um and how it's impacted is the same or your insurance is the same as another and so what we're here try to do today is go back through a lot of the discussion points point out where there are um you know places where it'll be different for individuals depending on lots of different things particularly points in time where state uh rent rules and regulations may have changed or the city may have changed um how we are handling health care over the years so ham's gonna do her best to do that i know it'll be up to council to um seek any public input thereafter but we're just here to make sure we're giving you accurate information and to try to guide council with the recommendations that really must be made um there won't be a vote on this today i think that's been a question mr mayor as far as the health care in and of itself obviously these just these decision points impact our budget which there will be a vote on that tonight the first of two readings but the health care piece hopefully by june 19th is something that the the details of it we will have worked out sure and for those of us having tech problems i'm not i am not um is this the same presentation that we have here in the hard copy it is okay there are a few and corrections just in case you might well you might want okay i've noticed a few miss bellwars those type of things so i've made some edits nothing substantive so nothing substantive nothing substantive and what i want to point out as well is that this is um kind of a re-engineering of the um the presentation that was given the last time in may a week ago but what i've noticed is and like miss wilson said health care is very confusing it's very confusing to all employees and so i've added some additional slides to really try and help people understand the terminology we're using and the and understand what the current benefits look like and then understand what the questions that are being asked and how we move forward so i'm trying to add a few slides it may seem a little redundant it may seem like people know this information but trust me from the the um responses i received over the last couple of weeks people are very confused and um current employees don't know what benefits they have and everybody's talking to their neighbor and talking to their co-worker who's given them incorrect information so this is an attempt to kind of try and give some some good information that's accurate um to help people understand what we're really dealing with so so i'll just say that and i'll get started so you know a lot of things that we go over um is is is like talking about alphabet soup is all these acronyms and all these these words and so i wanted to make sure people understand the the terms that we're talking about um you all know that we discussed opab last time which is other post employment benefits um and these are mostly um benefits for state and local governments and we're really talking about health care benefits so opab encompasses those health care benefits that a state and a local government are providing to its employees and its retirees so that's what that term is referring to ddb we said that a lot and people said ddp or dd you know it got a lot of different different um words but it means the defined dollar benefit and that defined dollar benefit is the amount the city contributes for retirees and their spouse health insurance coverage um the ddb has a cap and it is a one thousand one hundred and thirty dollars for the retiree per month and eight hundred and forty dollars per month for the their dependents or spouses um the ddb for the post 65 retirees or those in medicare eligible um is three hundred dollars for the retiree and two hundred twenty five dollars for their dependent respectfully hra was a term we we introduced to you guys last week and for council we've been talking to you several months about the possibility of having an hra for the the ddb distribution so an hra is a health reimbursement account it's an irs approved employer funded health benefit that reimburses employees for out of pocket medical expenses and individual health insurance premiums yes sir is the contribution into an hra by the city taxable to the employee that gets it it depends it depends mr uh mr duvall on how that's structured and how it's distributed so that's one of the things that we'll have to work through with an hra administrator to make sure that we minimize any kind of tax liability or any tax issues that it may cause retirees but it could potentially be potentially it could be taxable but we're going to try and make sure that we minimize any impact that that has and try for it not to be but there are some irs regulations that that may cause for it to have some tax implications um medicare is the federal health insurance program for people who are 65 or older um anybody who knows anything about medicare knows there's a part a and a part b the part a is the hospital portion that covers inpatient hospital stays um care and skilled nursing homes uh hospice care and some other home health care the part b is um for doctor's services outpatient care medical supplies and preventable services um there there are some other alphabets to medicare there's the d there's the e there's other there's other things but i just wanted to keep it simple with the a and b because those are the biggest portions of the medicare program so any questions about that that's just some some general um definitions i could have done aca and i could have done you know 20 more but i thought i'd keep it simple with those so let's talk about what the city office right now and i will say that the city office wonderful benefits and people um need to be very grateful that we we're doing that and we're trying to preserve as much of that as possible with the decisions that are being made so currently the city has three different plans we have a core a base a buy-up plan that's offered to active and retired employees their spouses and or their dependents and depending on what plan they're in the premiums vary based on the plan the co-insurances the duct the ductibles and those type things vary according to the plan as well but those are our three plans that we offer the city is self-insured everybody always says that we have blue cross blue shield insurance we do not we are self-insured which means we we assume all the burden of that responsibility all the claims all the administrative fees all the cost associated with providing that health benefit the city assumes that cost so when people say we have blue cross blue shield insurance we do not we are self-insured and i like for people to understand that because i hear that a lot now blue cross blue shield is our third party administrator so they are responsible for administering the program making sure the claims get processed um making sure that our health and wellness programs get administered and they also assist us with managing the employee health center and that's run by our partnership with doctors care and provide the network yes sir and key to that thank you for mentioning that mr. Duvall is that we have the ability to use their network and their network is um they negotiate with the providers in order to provide us with very good cost associated with people receiving medical services so that is very important all active employees have the opportunity to cover themselves their spouses and their dependents on one of our three programs we have about 2023 employees that are covered on our health plan so again like i said last week some employees are covered under tricare or they're covered under a spouse's insurance and they're not on our plan but he's gonna mute himself as far as the city department budgets are concerned each department's budget is charged a fee for insurance coverage for all employees and this amount includes um the amount that goes towards the total cost of health care includes the premiums as well as what the departments are funding so um each employee's department is contributing to the funding of their insurance so that's coming from the city as well and that is has budget implications and mr. will certainly talk about um the budget and the personnel services dollars that are associated with that see anybody have any questions so far everybody's keeping up with me river mcdull did you have a question no i'm fine so as far as um currently who is eligible for employee retiree health insurance at this time right now employees are eligible for retiree health insurance if they meet the following criteria if they're employed prior to july 1st of 2009 they must have 20 years of service with the city be employed with the city at the time of retirement and be eligible with the years of service to retire based on heba or the retirement systems requirements there was a lot there's been a lot of questions about who's eligible and who's not and those type things so i wanted to have this slide to be clarified if they were employed after july 1st 2009 they got to have 25 or 28 years of service we employ with the city at the time of retirement be eligible with the years of service to retire based on people requirements beginning in 2017 and you all implemented this in 2016 when employee retires they can maintain their current level of coverage they can't add any dependence after they leave and they can't increase their tier of coverage they can drop dependence and they can participate in a lower tier so for example if they leave here with employee spouse coverage and go to retiree coverage they can maintain that employee spouse coverage they could drop their spouse if their spouse gets incredible coverage somewhere else they could drop that spouse if they left here with the base plan they can not go up to the buy up they would have to stay at the base plan so that's that's what that means we did that are you all implemented that as an effort to try again to capture those costs because we were having quite a few people add additional dependence or increase their plan coverage which was affecting the cost of the coverage cost of providing that insurance so I wanted to make mention of that just because that is something that was put into place in 2017 this year there's a statement on here about eligibility for retirement is based on user service and age there's been a lot of questions about who's eligible for retirement when and how and those types of things so I wanted to point that out that depending on someone's user service and their age makes the determination of whether they're retirement eligible or not and if we turn to the next page there's an additional chart that I tried to put in there to give you a little more explanation to that as well the retirement system puts people into two classes you're a class two or you're a class three if you're an employee the class two employees are those who have earned service credit with the South Carolina retirement system and they were employed prior to July 1st of 2012 class threes were employed after 2012 so there's a difference and again I'm giving you this as general information everybody needs to contact the retirement system because they may have credible coverage from another employer they may be a different age when you reach retirement eligibility really is dependent upon you individually so I may reach retirement eligibility because I have service additional to my work here at the city but someone else they may not reach it at the same time as me so it depends on where else you worked and and and how much credible coverage you have so it does make a difference so you could be able to eligible for retirement based on the state but you haven't had 20 20 years of service with the city so you wouldn't carry the health plan into retirement absolutely absolutely that's correct mr. Mr. Duvall we have that issue a lot um or vice versa employees will come in and say I'm ready to retire I went to retirement system I've got everything taken care of and I've worked for 28 years total service and I'm ready to retire and they'll say am I going to be eligible for retiree insurance here at the city and I look and I'll say well you've only worked here 16 years so you're not eligible because when you started the requirement was for you to have worked at least 20 years and you're four years short so then they have to make a decision right do they work another four years or do they retire and and receive insurance from another source and so we currently have that situation occur and it just depends on when a person starts working for us as to when they're eligible for retiree insurance because remember back on this slide if they were here prior to July 1st 2009 they had to have 20 years but after that it's 25 or 28 years okay so everybody's really be clear about that well there's been a lot of confusion about that particular issue and I think Pam the other confusion is the the eligible of the years of service based on the people requirements so although you've been with the city 20 years if you were here before July 1st 2009 because of the state and the way that they've changed the retirement that may or may not affect you absolutely because you can have 20 years here but still need another an additional eight years with the retirement system because you haven't worked your 28 years to be retirement eligible through the retirement system so there there are some differences as to when people reach retirement eligibility so I really wanted to make sure people didn't hear that from their their colleague we're getting a lot of that well he's eligible to retire I am too maybe not you know he may have worked at Department of Corrections or DOT or another entity and he has credible service and you don't so it's it it may be a different situation for you and just because you work 20 years here doesn't mean you're eligible to retire like you just pointed out Ms. Devon and Mr. DeVall so there there are some nuances to your eligibility that currently exist these are things that are current these are current situations so I want to make sure everybody kind of understood that understood that there are different classes understood that there are different requirements there was some confusion about that police officers and firefighters are subject to the rule of 90 and they're not their eligibility is on that screen as well so just to make sure that people understand that. Pam last week after your presentation I had a couple people ask me you I know you explained it explain the rule of 90 again so that people are clear on what that means as far as the state retirement system. Okay so I'm sorry and I was I'm glad Mr. Devon brought that up to you Pam because even the second bullet and we're trying to be as simple as you can but it's just not simple the if employed after July 1 2009 I mean the rule of 90 because it's not necessarily 25 or 28. Right so that so and thank you for pointing that out we were trying to see the clear when we're talking about employee prior to July 1 2009 that's that's talking about city employment and city service so those were the designations we made for people being eligible for health insurance okay we made a distinction in July 1 2009 we started people paying premiums we created some plan changes at that point so when you all made that decision or when that decision was made those individuals who were hired after that they had to have additional years of service 25 or 28 years of service okay so everybody understand that right so the retirement system has always had a separate set of eligibility rules than the city has for its insurance because remember we're self-insured so we make our own eligibility requirements the retirement system has a totally separate set of retirement eligibility requirements in order for you to be retired under the retirement system so does everybody understand that we got a set of eligibility requirements for city health insurance we have a set of eligibility requirements requirements for retirement eligibility one is your health insurance one is your retirement pension or retirement check so there's two separate eligibility requirements that you have to meet to meet both of them okay so everybody get that so if you're employed if you're a class three and we're employed after a regular retiree remember this is not police officer's retirement but a regular retiree who was employed after 2012 has to reach the rule of 90 and I gave you a little example on the chart so the rule of 90 says that here's an example a member who is 56 years old and has at least 34 years of service credit will be eligible for a normal retirement so 56 plus 34 equals 90 so if you had you were 60 and you had 30 years of service that's 90 if you were 50 and you had 40 years of service that's 90 so your years of service and your age 80 years old and 10 years of service that's 90 your age and your years have to equal 90 and that's a plus for people who were hired after july 1st of 2012 okay and that's your eligibility requirement for the retirement system so any employees that are hired after 2012 have to meet the meet the rule of 90 in addition to the requirements that we have for insurance eligibility and currently those are the ones on that page so that person will fall in that second criteria and they'd have to have 25 or 28 years of service with the city and meet the rule of 90 with the retirement system if they were hired after 2012 it's so confusing right two years you have to know where were you in 2009 and where were you in 2012 that's right and there's two levels of eligibility that have to be satisfied you have to be meet those years of service with the city and you have to be retirement eligible so both of those things have to be in place and thirdly you have to be employed with us from time to time we do get people who have left us and they say well hey I'm going to retire for the retirement system and I work 20 years for the city now I want to participate in your insurance and we say sorry you left us prior to becoming retirement eligible and you're not eligible to participate in our insurance program okay so I know I've totally confused everybody but I was trying to be as simple and clear as possible anybody have questions about that so that kind of sets the stage for where we are now trying to explain what the current benefits look like so that we can move forward to make this the steps that we talked about last week before you move on I do have a question yes sir does the rule of 90 apply to the police officers retirement system it does not so it's it's age it's 25 years of service unless you're age 55 or older if you see that chart that I have below yeah that's that's your eligibility so you'll be a class two if you were hired prior to July 1 2012 and as it states it's 25 years of service on the day of retirement five of which must be earned service credit and that means that you have to work for a covered entity and and do the actual service work or be age 55 or older and have five years of our own service credit so that makes you eligible for police officers retirement if you're a class two class three you have to have 27 years or be 55 27 years with eight years or be 55 with eight years it is is since that that says 55 is that where we picked up the number age 55 for our retirement proposal that we're debating that's part of it but we looked at it from an actuarial perspective and we looked at our current population in the age that our current employees were were because our average age for our pre 65 retirees is 57 years old so we were looking for a year around and 55 did coincide with this year and for actuarial purposes it was a year that that they carved out but we'll we'll get to some more discussion about that as we move forward so as I stated earlier in the presentation and last week in the presentation in 2012 we adopted the ddb or what what is the ddb the defined dollar benefit for retiree health and health care that cut the city's op-ed liability in half to about 110 million dollars doing f y 13 and again that was done in an effort to try and um contain those costs and contain that liability so we set a you all agreed upon a specific or the council agreed upon a specific amount so that you could lock in or cap that liability for our retirees so that was the whole purpose of creating the ddb to to set that number so that number would move forward and be the consistent number that's used when calculating that liability the issue that we have is that since f y 17 the city has contributed more than the ddb amount as a result of not increasing retiree premium premiums and not making any plan design changes and as resulted in an increase of liability to 380.9 million dollars so that's you know one of the big issues that we're dealing with so the question is do we maintain the ddb or not if yes we're going to continue to cap that liability if the answer to that is no then that liability is going to continue to increase if we look at our next slide if we maintain the the ddb um moving forward if we don't maintain the ddb moving forward then we're looking at two to four times our liability our liabilities going to increase two to four times so if we don't maintain the ddb then we need to um accept the projections of a billion dollar liability by 2047 and we also need to let our credit rating agencies know that we're not we don't have a ddb that we're honoring because that makes a difference when we're looking at our credit ratings and bond ratings and and and those types of things so if we're not going to maintain that ddb we need to stop saying we want to maintain that ddb because we're not doing it right now so in order to maintain that ddb we've got to take some action right so if we move to the next slide if we decide that we're going to maintain that ddb then you got to look at who's going to be impacted whether it's going to be current active or future retirees and what that's going to look like so um there is a possibility to increase the premiums you all may remember in september we gave you some projected increased premiums that were significantly higher than premiums currently are but again that was a projection as to how much we had to increase those premiums in order to maintain that ddb so it meant that we would have to pass those costs all over to to the retirees to have a higher cost share so that's why those premiums were significantly increased um if we don't choose to do that then we have the option of um doing what we talked about previously and looking into an hra and have an hra administrator and a navigator healthcare navigator to help our employees now there are some additional questions that we're going to continue to go forward with this discussion but any questions about that so and so to restate that again council chose not to do the top one two three was that a hexagon the top hexagon option back in september council chosen that they felt like those higher premiums that were presented they were estimated but the reality to maintain the ddb the premiums would have been significantly higher and council chose not to do that at that time so we still work through the same discussion and we find ourselves here trying to make decisions and present some different options so i just want to be really clear about that or our retirees in the room and employees that you know there could have been another option before and council did not take that path recognizing that that was uh that didn't seem palatable to present those type of premium increases up to the retirees but we still are left with the same liability and we're still trying to find the option that we're and so with these decisions there are some questions that need to be answered and and i say here when i say who's going to be impacted and how so those were some of the things we talked about last week those are some of the things that we need to continue to discuss going forward so once the decision is made to maintain the ddb which i hope when you guys vote on the budget today you make that decision but of course it is up to you whether you make that decision or not we still are going to have to answer the following questions and with these questions i tried to list them all out so we could be very clear on what kind of questions we're looking at trying to answer so some of our first questions are with the current post 65 retirees remember we do a what a 300 and a 225 ddb for them will they continue to receive the ddb that's a question that needs to be answered um with the current post 65 retiree spouses do we discontinue the ddb or the subsidy for them or not um if it's discontinued are you going to move that those funds to the retiree and they get the total amount that ddb for our current pre 65 retirees will they receive the ddb through the hra that's a question that needs to be answered or will we discontinue the hra and will we discontinue the hra when they become 65 if you make the decision that we don't offer post 65 retiree coverage then they won't be eligible for post 65 retiree coverage as well so that's a question that needs to be answered um for the current pre 65 retiree spouses are you going to discontinue their subsidy their ddb of 840 or are you going to maintain that and are we going to do it in the form of an hra are we going to do increase premiums or are we going to discontinue their ddb all together and again if we get out of offering the ddb for post 65 then they won't be eligible for that benefit as well so those are a number of questions that we need answers to as far as the employees are concerned we talked prior about um last week about having to make a more um spread that's that's more like the 80 20 share currently we're at a 88 12 share which means that the city pays 80 percent of the premium or the cost of coverage and the employee pays 12 percent so it was proposed to phase in some increases in premiums um changes in deductibles out of pocket and copay changes and do some changes to the um prescription coverage we also are looking at proposing to increase the tobacco use surcharge from $50 to $100 and implementing a spousal surcharge for spouses with credible coverage available to them you all also mentioned some other questions and we'll get to those as we move forward any questions so far is that $100 standard is that low is that a high tobacco surcharge it's honestly it's really all over the place $50 is extremely low extremely low what we see a lot is at least 100 and a lot of people have even higher than that the $50 is really low as far as the current active employees um in order to maintain that 80 20 share is proposed that we phase into that that we make some premium adjustments this year and then make make some additional ones next year please realize that anything that we do this year will go into effect January 1 of 2019 we don't make benefit changes in the middle of the year we're hearing that a lot we're hearing that oh they're going to vote and in July my insurance is going to change that's not going to happen whatever whatever it's voted on or decided upon it will change the the um the health insurance for 2019 for next year we always do health care changes on a annual basis we don't do it on a fiscal year basis we don't do it mid-year we don't do it have hazardly we do it in January so everybody will have an opportunity to know that the changes are coming and when we do our open enrollment in October they can make some educated decisions about whether or not they want to change any of their benefit options um so if we're going to phase in that that 80 20 share we're going to have to increase the premiums and we're going to have to make some plan design changes and they're the ones that are represented on that prior slide phase in in the premiums changing the deductibles the out of pocket maximums and increasing the search creating a spouse of surcharge and increasing the tobacco surcharge yes sir since these um since these major decisions will be implemented in January and since we have from the city manager proposed balanced budget uh to get us by the legal requirement that we have a balanced budget by the first of july uh is there a possibility that we could continue this discussion on retiree benefits and health care adjustments a few more weeks after the first of july oh you're going to yeah it's it's so important to note no dates and obviously if we pass a budget a balanced budget we're going to back into that budget as well i mean so that's going back in and out and obviously and i want to make sure that as we continue to discuss this we talk about what this long-term liability means financially and um although gas rules are changing what meeting that annual requirement um to address the long-term liability does to the city budget too so that that may not be your shop and maybe your shop or or have you with someone just be prepared to talk about that yep so we'll we'll get to that in the next couple of slides but you're absolutely right those are those are very important questions so are the actives like i deal with the retirees there's questions that need to be answered with the actives are you going to phase in those premium increases to to get us to that share as i've said in previous slides increase the deductible the the prescription structure increase the surcharges and then make some decisions about spouses are we going to continue to offer spousal coverage um if we do continue how much are we going to subsidize that that spousal coverage and are we going to add a surcharge or not those are questions that that have to be answered about active coverage as far as future hires or future future retirees i should say um those are people that we're talking about who are current employees who have not retired yet that's this category that i'm talking about on this particular slide so the decisions have to be made of whether we're going to offer retiree coverage or not we've had some discussions about whether it's going to be those hired before july 1 2009 those after july 1 2009 all current employees um whether we're going to discontinue that benefit when retirees reach age 65 for this population are we going to offer benefit to the spouses or and how we're going to subsidize that or if we're going to subsidize that at all and then we've talked about whether or not we were going to add a minimum age eligibility requirement whether that will be 55 we had some discussion about whether that could be 50 right now we're looking at um some of the actuarial numbers to see if that five years makes a big difference um from what we're seeing now it doesn't look like it makes it makes a huge difference so it may not be something that really makes a great deal of difference so it might not be worth doing the 55 maybe the 50 is better maybe no age at all that's a decision that has to be made but we'll certainly you know as as we move forward like you said um mr. Duvall will have some opportunity to to show you some numbers and figures about how those numbers look um then there's the question about um future employees people who aren't working for the city yet what were their eligibility for retiree insurance look like will we offer them the ddb or not um what will be their requirements will their spouses be eligible will they be eligible for post 65 coverage so i tried to summarize kind of the questions that we all um present it or that people present it during the the public's um questions and answers some things that you all displayed to us or asked us in prior meetings in the meeting before and so we really tried to kind of summarize some of those things to put them really clearly in black and white so we could make some decisions and discussion about it so that those were some of the questions both with the post 65 pre 65 actives and future hires for the city i am another question i got in the last week um because there was a discussion about discontinued coverage after 65 anyway um for people who aren't taking advantage right now of or they're medicaid eligible but they don't understand how that works if we discontinued coverage what does that mean as far as their medicaid and what does that cover can you speak to that well medicare eligibility you know they're totally different that's a totally different set of requirements um we do not we offer a supplement so everybody that 65 years of age or older is eligible for medicare um if they have any questions about that there are lots of resources out there that can help them sign up for medicare and be able to do that they can go to the social security administration and there are other other places they can go to to sign up but anybody regardless of where they've worked anything whether they're retirement eligible or not if they're 65 they're eligible for medicare so um they would still have the opportunity to do that regardless of what we offer as our post 65 supplemental coverage does that answer your question yeah i think the question that was coming to me is what does that mean if we drop that that means we would no longer provide the supplement right and so then they would be medicare eligible and then potentially have to get coverage somewhere else like i know other insurance companies pay provide supplement they'd have to get the supplement and the our discussion was a navigator could help them with that right with if if we're going to eliminate coverage or we're going to offer an hra or whatever mechanism we're going to provide to employees we plan to do a good deal of communication and and have an opportunity for people to ask questions and help them figure out or navigate what happens next um we navigators are skilled in working with that population um they say look in your medicine cabinet give me all your medicine let's talk about what you need let's talk about what kind of health issues you have and they can help them figure out which um provider provides the best coverage for them but they would potentially if we stopped offering post 65 supplemental coverage they'd have to procure their own supplemental insurance or not have any supplemental insurance um a lot of people do because that cuts down on the cost that they that medicare doesn't cover um and so you'll see most people have some type of supplemental plan but they would have to go out and find their own supplemental plan and we would want to use a navigator to help them navigate those waters but they'd have to get their own supplemental plan yep the long answer to your question typically it depends on the plan and how it's structured yes sir there are lots of supplemental um medicare plans out there and it depends on how much they want to pay for it it depends on what their needs are as to what will be the most beneficial to that particular post 65 retiree so um you know some of the things that we always talk about when it comes to healthcare is how we all participate in the cost of our healthcare um even us active employees and retirees we have a part to play in how much our healthcare costs us and some decisions that our employees should think about making and we all should make me myself included is deciding to take a more active role in our health um and to utilize the resources that we have we currently have an employee health center that's free of charge we dispense prescriptions um and we still have a have a challenge getting people to go to our employee health center um and that that's a benefit that's clearly there and clearly accessible for them to use um the wellness incentives we are we have lots of wellness incentives we've given people up to 225 a person $550 with them and their spouse for them to perform those health um related activities such as getting a physical and getting your teeth cleaned and we have you know 10 percent of our population take advantage of those things and that's a sad sad number and that's money that's just sitting there that they could be using to to make sure that they are taking care of their health um become a better health care consumer if you need an MRI you don't have to go to the hospital you can go to an imaging center those choices that people make affect the claims that we pay it's all going in there together and then ultimately to make better our healthy lifestyle changes and decisions if you're a smoke or stop smoking um a lot of our um things that we see are related to um the claims are related to diabetes they're related to hypertension some of those things are lifestyle related and we all can you know do a better job of maintaining and managing our health and so we want to encourage people to take advantage of the things that we do currently offer and we want to try and continue to offer those benefits to our employees as we move forward and make these decisions how many of those things are you're legally allowed to acquire for participation you know since we're self-insured we really can require most or all of those if we chose to it would be a manner of a manner of managing it and how do we make people do it um I know of employers that say if you don't get your biometric screening the month after we they set a certain time and everybody goes that month and if they don't get it the month after it they drop them from coverage they don't have coverage anymore now that's an extreme situation extreme case but there are other people for example Berkeley County they require all their employees to go during a two-week period or they increase their premium significantly or not taking advantage of their biometric screening those things provide us with very important information about how we can better manage our population how we can make you know different plan design changes um how we can be more proactive and more aggressive with how we help people manage their chronic diseases how we help identify things in an earlier stage before they become more dire and more more costly all those things matter every little thing matters when it comes to health care well if we if we were to make it we could do it for both Actives and and retirees it's a little harder for retirees since they don't work with us currently now but that that's a potential change we can make well I was just going to say to that point and we I think I brought it up maybe last year maybe the year before but just for my colleagues that biometric screening is very important and and um you know it was like when we first brought up the surcharge for tobacco I think it took us we talked about it we brought it up and it took us three or four years before we implemented it the biometric screening screening I talked about that about two years ago and I really do think that's I mean it's incredible for us to know where you know we have vulnerable populations that they can you know really get something early on before it gets to the point where we have increased claims and so if that is something that we require can require I think we need to seriously consider doing that because that will help us manage and not just that for cost purposes but you know I do think that there's a lack of awareness among just people on their health I mean I know so many people that will have issues and they don't respond to it they don't you know they don't go to the doctor and then a year later you find out that there is a very grave situation they're in that could have been managed earlier so I think for just the overall health of our employees it's kind of like you know the parent telling your child you know this is for your good I think we need to require it and I think ultimately it will not only help us with the cost but it will help our employees live a better life absolutely and that's really the goal I mean we really are trying to provide our employees with those things that make them healthier happier employees and and that you know of course that does have a financial benefit to it but it is very important and you know a lot of times a couple years ago we looked at our numbers and 80 percent of our employees never filed a claim at all I'm not naive enough to think that that's because everybody's healthy that's because people just aren't going to the doctor and they're waiting and if at least if we have the biometric screening we can identify those things early early stages of things that maybe come more complicated that can be better managed and be better beneficial more beneficial for the employee as well river mcnell is your mic on river mcnell is your mic on sorry I'll just talk that loud you're used to preaching so you're used to well I'm used to I'm used to I am used to preaching let the ushers come follow me take up an offering amen um ma'am let me ask you a question medicare 65 years old you're eligible for eligible for that what's the how does it impact us if we provided supplemental insurance now the city has done that in the past I understand yes sir we currently do that currently do it yes we'll continue to do that if that's the decision it's made all right that's what I'm that's it yeah yeah um and that's one of the questions that I pose to you all is whether or not that is something that's the benefit you want to continue to offer what's the impact pan financially well currently again we have a ddb for a defined dollar benefit for those individuals as well as 300 for the host 65 retiree and 225 for their spouse so again that certainly that amount could be adjusted I will tell you that our supplemental plan is currently through united healthcare um and based upon what we've negotiated currently um the retirees still have to pay a little over 200 dollars in addition to what we supplement so um you know we certainly look every year at renegotiating that plan for our host 65 retirees the struggle we have is that that group is a small group that has a high level of experience meaning they have a high level of claims and so it's it's it's a costly coverage to do as a group coverage um and so we we have to based on the mix of the population the age and the like I said the claims experience we get the the quotes that we can that we can get and sometimes it gets costly and we have those pre 60 post 65 retirees say I could go out and get my own plan and it would be cheaper and that is the case because maybe we're paying a little bit more because maybe there's a a person that's a little less well than they are and they are balancing that and what they charge us and premiums for that that coverage um so the decisions that you all have to make um of course like I said there are lots of questions that need to be answered um today you really need to decide whether or not you're going to maintain that ddb whether we use an hra and who's eligible certainly can be determined at a later date but you got to decide if you're going to um continue to fund that ddb and in its current state um that's how missy has built the budget is based on the current ddb of the 1130 per retiree in 840 just those dollar amounts if you want to change that distribution we certainly can talk about that and that's one of the questions we can discuss um you have to vote today um as miss wilson said for the first hearing of the budget the decision on health care does not change the total amount of the budget that is being adopted as long as you stick with that ddb that's in place now but mind you if you stick with that ddb we got to make some other decisions because that is not covering the total amount of cost and that will not address the total liability that we are dealing with so we have to answer those other questions and make those other decisions in order to be able to do do those things um if you you know we're looking at trying to make some more decisions on june on june 19th um and we don't have to make them that day either but the longer we delay the less time we have to communicate with people the less time we have to hire a navigator the less time we have to do all the things that we need to do so the quicker we can make this decision the better we certainly want to be thoughtful and strategic about it but we we do need to to move forward and make decisions and it helps because there's a lot of miscommunication and a lot of confusion and a lot of concern and so the sooner we make the decisions the quicker somebody can make some life decisions and what is maintaining and adhering to the ddb meaning for a long term actual liability what's that number uh 100 billion dollars if you don't i mean a billion dollars if you know a billion dollars if you 100 billion to be a little bit appreciate the answer but that wasn't my question my question is if we're here to it if we maintain it if we maintain it and adhere to it if we adhere to it i don't know the billion dollars is uh by 2047 is is is clear um what the potential is if we don't do something do you know the number top your head is that it's i thought it was a 48 million but i was just making sure the jeff and missy certainly can why don't you go ahead and go ahead well while you guys search for the answer you keep going on pam pam in addition to the other information as we're making these decisions um i know we talked a little bit last week about the spassel um surcharge and what that amount would be and i think we i think there was a consensus that even the amount that was thrown out might be low so could do you have any backup on that so we can make a informed decision on what the appropriate spassel surcharge if we go that direction should be so that at least kind of recoups some of the money that we we pay out we looked last time when when um aon was making some recommendations to us we looked at a hundred dollars um per month to be added to that to whatever premiums whether that be um employee spouse or full family um we certainly can look at that a little bit more that was just their projections and they gave us you know what so that that hundred because well i guess that question came up last week when y'all recommended that but i was and i also couldn't necessarily hear all the time on the phone but so that hundred dollars actually came as a recommendation from the consultant yes okay yeah and they gave us some financial implications if we did the hundred dollars of course if we made it more than that and and you know you made a good point last week is that is that hundred dollars really significant enough it may be that people don't mind paying that hundred dollars and it doesn't move people to to go out and get covers that they already have access to and and makes them continue to stay on our coverage but we did get that that projected recommendation from aon yes please jeff you got an answer sorry what's the number so in response to your question if we maintain yeah the ddb our total liabilities is 190 million that's the one that pam showed earlier that if we don't maintain it it grows immediately to about 380 that's why that and then over 40 years it'll grow to a million that immediately grows 200 300 300 300 from 180 to two yeah doubles yeah based off those other decision points that we are still trying to make to it could be lower than the 190 and then the 48 million is the cash on hand the money yeah i just have a comment at the end but i didn't know if we're done thanks for the updated summary as well adding in the questions that i know some of our charities employees and and council asked last week too all right so again you know those questions at the end you know have to make sure we're looking at you know maintaining it making the vote today we still have some opportunity as mr duvall is asked do we have some more time to make some of those other decisions we certainly do have that time i want people to understand that we are certainly going to be communicating and providing people with information we certainly don't intend to not tell people what the final decisions are and not help them navigate through whatever decisions that are made because we want people to be informed and educated and make the best decisions for them we're not trying to do this in some kind of back room and hide it we're really trying to provide people with information this has been incredibly transparent and yes we're trying to it's extremely transparent and and and we want people to have the information it is much better for for me as an hr professional and us as the city staff and people know what benefits they have i can't tell you how many people who haven't a clue about what they have now and they're complaining about stuff that they don't even know that they even got and it's like learn research and understand what you have and be able to utilize it to your best benefit and then have you can ask an educated question about it going forward and many of our current employees too mr mayor who can't necessarily have the benefit of being in this room right now as retirees may have can come i mean they are to the people that may be impacted and so there will be opportunities where we share that information but it's important for me that we manage how we share information when decisions have been made as well i mean there's certain points in time right now we're still discussing we're trying to make final decisions and any employees who can watch on the stream and listen in i think that's great but at the right time we will be clear about the decisions that have been made as well because it can get more confusing yeah i think Pam very much so for putting this presentation together the way she did today do i sense renewal that that decision point number one though about maintaining the ddb is the direction we need to go because that does impact the bigger budget reading and just in general that frames everything if we don't maintain the db then we wound up with a long-term liability that's largely in the city budget itself and that's untenable and unsustainable so i think yes as relates to maintaining the db as well as making sure we maintain the 80-20 split on premiums as well with active employees and we can talk about everything else and but you guys need to give us some hard and fast discussion points how we operate within the borders as we discuss through everything else i do think it's compelling as we look at the the continuing increase in in costs of being self-insured particularly from chronic illnesses that we really start putting some real sticks less carrots yeah we got to we it's just it's just not sustainable we got we got to make sure we hold the line and ensure that our people are healthy which includes all of us i might add that's why you'll have vegan dinner tonight thank you yeah we'll enjoy it but yeah i think that's a sense of the body and we'll have to figure out again how creative we can be within those those boundaries to devise a plan that works for for everyone yes it's just a question um you we're talking now about the communications to to staff and employees to get the most accurate information and timing are we doing anything differently now doing our discussions to communicate or in an informed employees where we are now we have not sent out anything you know other than the the presentations that have been attached to the agendas and to the information that you all have discussed we have not done anything more specific than that and and as miss miss wilson has said we talked to department heads about it just so they could have some information um and just so we could give them an opportunity to hear at first hand um but we certainly want to be able to provide our employees with as much accurate and current information as possible what my intentions were with miss wilson's approval is to send out the presentation that was done today um to staff so that they will have a copy of it again it's it's you know it'll be attached to the minutes of the meeting but certainly want to make sure that they have an opportunity to see it as well and so we'll be attaching it um and sending it out so that they'll they'll have the opportunity to see it if miss wilson's it's good but again it's their decisions that have to be made so you know we can we will do that you know i'm i'm employees can come sit and talk with me and pam individually i mean we will do that but what happens many times is until you some of the the key decision points that we went through today the various questions it will create more questions and more unknowns and more confusion if we don't provide you with some guidance to say you know you really just need to make this decision right here i know it's hard we surely don't take it lightly but the decisions have to be made and the longer we wait to make them that's where the confusion continues yeah do we have any um research particularly if berkeley county has been through this process on biometric screening i mean it's kind of what success they've had or maybe not this relates to health care outcomes and as well as a fiscal uh impact of uh of folks oh excuse me can we get that i was gonna say i've spoken to them anecdotally about it um but i'm certain that they express that they would share you know any feedback or any data they have related to that um you know i'm not sure if they're fully insured or or if they are um self assured um so we'd have to get those things too because of course nothing happens in a vacuum and other things impact that but we'll certainly reach out to them and see what information we use we can we can gather about that it'd be helpful i know he's on he's on mute daniel you still there yeah there you said something daniel all right any any questions repeat it did we you actually are answering we can hear you recommend did you have any questions or comments that you'd like to make good by savannah june well i just gonna make a comment um so yes last week i was um at the women and municipal government uh summer meeting and so we had health care was one of our sessions we had a very good conversation but um there are a lot of cities nationally that are not providing coverage to retirees at all um there are a lot of cities who um their current employees pay a lot more in in premiums and i was really just kind of shocked um i thought it would be more 50 50 and i was probably more in the minority in the room um and then the other thing that shocked me mr. Mayor is a lot of the um elected officials knew nothing about gasby when i mentioned gasby so tells me that they're not participating or at least they're not knowledgeable about that impact on them and i was really kind of surprised on that but but i say that to say i everyone's having these discussions it's not easy as it's um but it has to be discussed but i think that really the long-term impact on our employees wellness should be our prevailing priority and i think if we keep that focus then ultimately i think the the cost will will be in line as well yeah absolutely mr. rickman said he's um some additional uh request he made last week uh additional information he's he's still waiting on some of that information some can you hear me no you can't hear you i'm texting him just text him say okay we'll provide okay all right some specific questions okay all right thank you miss benjamin thank you mr. benjamin right job mr. mayor at this point i'm not sure if you are entertaining any other comments i think i know you guys are here uh is anyone else who wanted to who wanted to add any input on this there's a little more information than last week uh the um and we're gonna keep on turning it out and keep the dialogue going and um mr. howard uh mr. duvall suggested we'll keep talking about how we operate within those lines and and some of you uh miss divine reference the gas we rules that some of you are very familiar with some may not be um as familiar with but as we look at the long-term costs of of providing uh medical and dental benefits non-pension related benefits we have to set aside every year a certain amount of money to cover that long-term actuarial liability uh your city has been um a whole lot more responsible than some cities around the country as miss divine mentioned and as a result a lot of the cities are are going to see some really really challenging days ahead they're going to see the bond ratings drop precipitously there um they're going to see actually non-pension related liabilities probably climb to uh greater than their pension related liabilities the amount of money we have to set aside every year to meet that long-term liability which um if we're able to get this done successfully we'll we'll stick at about 180 million dollars if we don't do anything it will grow to two times that and if we continue on this path it will it will be projected to be about a billion dollars uh in in 2047 and it's just unsustainable we're going to wind up being a health insurance company without any other ability to provide any other services so we've got to figure out how we continue staying focused on employee health focused on retiree health at the very same time having a sustainable uh of health insurance of benefits program that we can just meet the needs of our employees and our retirees now between those two lines there's a whole lot of different considerations that miss benjamin raised that um that each of the council members raised the different areas of their concern whether our focus ought to be simply on them on employees or or spouses or retirees and retirees independents what we do about supplemental uh coverage how we handle all these issues but we're going to have to figure out how we do whatever we do within those lines that allow us to have fiscal sustainability um it's not easy uh and and there's been every effort I think uh this year and staff is on a good job and we and as you all know we keep the can down the road to allow for more more research more dialogue more conversation and we'll keep doing that over the next several months as we work out the final points in this plan what what does seem to be clear maybe partially because of of some of the silence in the room and some of the points raised is that I think we're going to have to start really pushing uh everyone to continue using the employee health center to really start taking advantage of some of the wellness initiatives to try and and make sure we all become a bit healthier and that and that's council that's that's staff and and and retirees because those chronic costs as a self-insured entity are just out of control and we and we gotta figure out how we get our arms wrapped around it uh we do this every couple of years which makes no one happy but we're required to uh to do this every couple of years we gotta go back and look at it every couple of years and um it's never fun um I think we probably do as as good a job as as as you can possibly do in these in these difficult situations and we have to adjust to these shifting sands as we as we um do every couple of years as miss divine mentioned some policymakers aren't even talking about these issues and I will tell you they have massive growing long-term liabilities that will be impossible in their respective cities in in states from Illinois and Texas to Pennsylvania to get out from under uh at at some date in the probably not too distant future we can't put Colombia in that position uh we will wind up having uh um robust health uh medical and dental benefits without um being able just to cover basic services and that's just not where we want to be and I don't believe that's where any of us in this room want to be so um if anyone has any who didn't speak or if you did speak you have something to add as on point um if there's a question let's make it a question if there's a statement um while again last week we uh we we did it we we normally don't have uh q and a at at um at work session but I thought it was actually incredibly edifying and informative um so if someone has something else to add there will be a continuing conversation as to what the plan looks like and and we look forward to your continued engagement there you sure can Roland introduce yourself for the for the for the benefit of those who are not in the room and for the record Mr. Mayor members of City Council my name is Roland Smallwood I'm one of your retirees I heard about this by chance I didn't know about it somebody called me and told me that City Council were going to be discussing something that I had to do with the insurance of retirees and of course current employees I don't stand here to minimize the importance of what you ladies and gentlemen have on your plate I must tell you after working for the city for the number of years you have a humanist job in front of you I don't envy you I don't want to be sitting in your spot right now because I know how tough making this kind of decision can be neither do I stand here to trivialize what staff have done I think they've done a wonderful job it's a hard thing to do but I simply stand here to say please listen or take into consideration the request of Mr. Duvall right now because you see it is in discussion that we may be able to come up with something that somebody is not thinking about and to start thinking about taking a vote now as to what you do with this because of the time restraint that's on it if there's any time that you all have that you all can discuss this even further please by all means use that time to discuss it further and secondly some of us are here we may not be working anymore we may not look as old as we are I'm 70 years old 70 I go to the doctor three times a year I take no medication so I want to know from each hour what is united healthcare doing with all of the money that I'm saving I go for general physical I go for eye checkup and I go for my whatever drastic checkup they need to do on me that's all and I take no medication okay so if somebody like me who's 70 years of age sees the doctors three times a year and as a matter of fact I've only seen a doctor two times this year because all of last year or most of last year I was out of state working for FEMA in Florida what's happening to all of the money that somebody like me saving to my supplementary insurance is that your last question please okay thank you well and you'll take that into consideration and let us know the next time thank you or some of us can give some suggestions absolutely incredibly valuable counsel from our attirees I think we already agreed that we would we take mr. Duvall's advice under consideration that we're gonna we're gonna have additional dialogue I'd also suggest this is an answer to your question roller that you are not atypical that that that everyone is an gone three times a year including people who are half your age I might add I'm not half your age I just pointed it myself but I mean so every one's different and as a result I mean that's kind of the nature of an insurance we we take care of each other and that's what we're trying to do but we're gonna have continued dialogue and if you got some other ideas we'd love to hear we'd hear them yes sir my name is Jeff Dickey and I'm a retired police officer and I think mr. Benjamin this presentation was much better than the last one had much more information in it the big uproar from the law enforcement the fireside was the magic 55 number and also at the last meeting we were told we were under the role in 90 which we knew we're not but we were told that all state retirement was under the role in 90 so I think the big thing and it's not for me because I'm retired but for the firefighters and the police officers they meet state state eligibility at 47 or 48 and it's the 55 number that was really the problem that caused the uproar I don't think it was miscommunication I don't think it was misunderstanding and I highly encourage you to send that out to them the presentation you did was much more beneficial and it tells them because we know you got to make decisions and you could have you know and the thing is things have to change but it's changed on somebody that started working here 30 years ago and was promised a lot more than we got now because 30 years ago even 20 years ago we were promised free for life if you met these requirements and when you change I think the change needs to be geared more towards the future because those people were not promised the same things we were you know people that started 30 years ago and I started 1988 we're told you meet these requirements free insurance for life when you started charging everybody's like yeah it's still really cheap and it's really good and I tell everybody our insurance is better than anybody's I don't know anybody's got insurance as close as good as ours but you know we know there has to be changes but so drastic on the older group that was promised better versus the newer group I think there's got to be some kind of balance but the big uproar I think was the 55 and that's that's all I had but I appreciate you again taking questions again a much better I I think you send it to everybody the presentation was done today thank you thank you and I just I have to acknowledge the word promised I mean there are no promises in government or in the entity in which we work so I understand things that may have been implemented at certain periods of time but just for clarification in the media and all the social media where there's a lot of you know igniting people to come because something was promised that is not how it operates in the entity in which we work I certainly acknowledge what you were told I certainly acknowledge what the rules were the ending that rules change but there can be no promises with the council form of government because these council members don't even aren't even making binding decision on future councils so that's just not a terminology that needs to be used yeah well thank thank you yes sir thank you I appreciate it this first time I've ever addressed y'all my name is david crosslin and I've worked for the columbia fire department for 25 years yes sir and uh in saying what you just spoke of I believe a man's word or a woman's word is the bond what you say when they come here the council that was in place when I come to work here told me if I fulfill these duties that they would look after me and my family and as the police officer spoke of I understand the rising cost of healthcare 19 percent of a gross national product is a pretty substantial debt on this nation and a municipality I understand that but what I'm trying to point to you is with the retirees before 2012 and the ones that's been here 25 30 years and have retired I want mr. mayor council I want you to understand that what was told to us when we come to work here is it is a way of life with us it is our income it is the way that we live it's the welfare of our families I mean just to snap your fingers and take it away from us like that and to even think about that is an atrocity upon the men and women that's given their lives to the city I come to work here at $12,000 a year I had to work two and three jobs to make ends meet didn't mind it I love working for the city I love working for the citizens of the city of columbia and the county of richland and and I give my heart and soul into it my wife she sit right there with me she watched them dirty nasty cancer causing clothes that I brought home every day from fires that we fought out here in the street well we knew nothing about the cancer causing elements in our clothes and in our bodies and the things that we that we fought through that that we've come to realize today my wife has cancer now my wife has pancreatic cancer now I don't know if it's caused from that or not but she suffered for 25 and 30 years just like the rest of us and to say that she doesn't matter is an atrocity upon me I can't I can't say that about my wife I mean because she's been right there with me through thick and thin through everything that I've gone through she's just as much a part of it as I am so I understand the cost may go up but please please guys you got to think about this is a way of life for us we depend on this we know costs will go up we understand that but you can't just kick us to the curve helps me giving it all to you guys and we expect a little bit back from y'all thank you thank you prayers for your wife hello my name is Jacob Eller I'm the president of the Columbia firefighters association I represent not only our active firefighters but our retirees and it's by nature of the job that we also work with several divisions within the city the one thing that I really enjoyed hearing was the part about communication and having an open lines of communication with all the employees because a lot of people didn't know that these work sessions were happening so I appreciate that and we're going to disseminate information as well the other thing is the wellness incentive that's a huge that's a it's a huge thing for me and a thing that we're trying to push along with the fire department last year when we had these discussions there was talk about us forming a committee of both active and retired members that can have buy-in with anything moving forward so what I would ask is that we can put people like us put some of our retirees at the table and come up with a plan together something that everybody can agree upon I appreciate your time and nothing that dialogue always helps Jacob it always helps it could be helpful as well as we move forward yes sir I appreciate your time and we'll talk to you soon great thank you Mary council um I used to be city clerk then I've retired and I don't none of you were here in 89 when I was hired I was hired making $14,000 a year the city saved money by paying us lower wages providing us with insurance by doing so that didn't add to our state retirement so now when we have to pay for our insurance we're paying it out of our state retirement it is lower than if we were paid what normal wages in the private sector were paid at that time so it's taken money away from us that the city saved in the long run and we were told we'd have insurance when we retired I think you need to consider the promises made to the employees at the time they were hired you want to change that at a certain date I have no problem with that you should state your commitment with the commitment that was given to us at the time we were hired I appreciate your time thank you appreciate your time I do want to clarify one more time too that part of Pam's presentation today that she did not include from the last time that was really clear is that there would still be a coverage component for the retirees that that's what the HRA is so I don't want it to get lost and that's going to make no one there's been no no proposal that said there would not be coverage in some some form for the retirees I think the more the more dialogue more discussion we have the better things get the more the more yeah the more the more we share information so it gets better and better I'm going to turn the motion to go to executive session is there anything else on the agenda Mr. Duvall I'd like to move we're going to executive session to the discussion of negotiations instance proposed contractual arrangements pursuant to code section 30 dash 4078 to the home serve rate increase and the Columbia Canal receipt of legal advice uh under code section 30 dash 4078 winter autumn at all versus city of Columbia receipt of legal advice related to matters covered by attorney client privilege pursuant to 78 to hud cdbg entitlement funding loric place housing uh columbia housing authority request is there a second second the previous question third color all all right mr mcdowell executive session mr duvall hi mr vine hi mr davis hi mayor benzeman hi thank you