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Summary <br />The expectation of quality service has been set by County citizens and met by County <br />employees, and now our commitment to excellence in service can also be <br />demonstrated by approving the Manager's recommended pay and benefits plan for fiscal <br />year 2006-07. <br />Commissioner Halkiotis made reference to employee health insurance, and <br />asked what happens if the projected 16°~ increase does not happen. He asked where <br />the surplus money would go. John Link said that as far as he knows it would go into the <br />general fund. Commissioner Halkiotis suggested dealing with this possibility. <br />Commissioner Halkiotis made reference to the living wage and that it affects <br />about 80 temporary employees and he asked if this includes teenagers and college <br />students employed far the summer (i.e., Recreation and Parks). Tyrone Jackson said <br />that it would not include temporary employees for the summer. <br />Chair Jacobs made reference to the General Fund COLA Cost VIlorksheet and <br />asked clarifying questions, which were answered by Tyrone Jackson. <br />Commissioner Gordon verified that the in-range increase was 4% last year and <br />this year the recommendation is 2.5°~. <br />Chair Jacobs made reference to the Tuition Assistance Program, G6, in the <br />budget documents that the Board has already received. He asked Tyrone Jackson if <br />this was well utilized and how he regarded the information. Tyrone Jackson said that <br />this program is well utilized and they had to transfer more money into the program <br />because employees were using it so much. <br />Chair Jacobs asked about the schedule and if employees were allowed to go to <br />class day or night. John Link said that the primary guideline is that an employee does <br />his/her work and goes at night and if they go during the day, they make the work up at <br />night. <br />Chair Jacobs said that he would like to extend a courtesy to lower paid <br />employees that might have two jobs and have a problem going to class at night. <br />Tyrone Jackson said that they would give some consideration to situations like <br />this. Kathleen Goodhand said that Department Heads would work with employees. <br />Chair Jacobs would like to break this down by department. He suggested <br />publicizing the opportunity because many employees may not realize that they can do <br />thl5. <br />Chair Jacobs asked about the Sportsplex and said that County employees now <br />get a 113 discount. He would like to find out what would be involved in having a larger <br />discount far County employees and their families and whether this could be related to <br />improved health and reduce health care costs. This might work out as a benefit to <br />employees without being a cost to the taxpayer. <br />John Link said that as they kick off the health education process for employees, <br />there is a great emphasis on attributes of regular exercise. <br />Rod Visser said that they did discuss this with John Stock at Recreation Factory <br />Partners and some options would include possibly as much as a 50°lo discount for <br />employees and this might generate enough interest so that the revenue evens out. The <br />other option is that this budget includes a transfer of $700,000 from the general fund to <br />the Sportsplex Enterprise Fund. A little aver $500,000 is for debt service and the rest is <br />far balancing the budget and underwriting the operation. They also discussed how, <br />since that revenue needs to be transferred from the general fund anyway, there may be <br />