Special Board of Aldermen Public Hearing — May 20, 2020 Page 12
In terms of the open positions, open positions, the hiring freezes, there are some positions open and we
really look at those on a case-by-case basis to ask the question, OK there’s an open position, do we need to
fill that right now? At some point we might need to but do we need to do it right now. If the answer is No, we
can defer it, the hiring freeze would defer those positions, we save some money while we are waiting and in
the delay that results from the hiring freeze. That does not mean that someday we won’t fill those positions
but right now we don’t think they are necessary to today to fill the job.
Ms. Ortolano So can a citizen get a list of what those positions are within the Budget that you looked at? |
mean you explained essential and non-essential from Emergency Management and | understand that but |
am really talking about the Budget. Is that something that is available or not, | just don’t know.
Mayor Donchess
The ones we are looking at are the open positions, meaning people have resigned or retired or whatever.
There would be a list of the open positions that currently exist, yes. That is somewhere.
Ms. Ortolano OK.
Chairman Dowd
You have a couple minutes left.
Ms. Ortolano Just one other quick one then. Healthcare — | was curious, | am glad you addressed the high
deductible plan that you brought forward. It was my understanding and | might be wrong, that the sign-up
period for that might have happened. And if it did, can you tell us how was the response for switching into
that plan and what is the cost savings associated with that?
Mayor Donchess
| think that we should turn the question over to the Administrative Services Director, Kim Kleiner, who can
give more detail. But in general, the high deductible plan because it encourages, it incentives shopping and
the determination — Well if | can get a service for $500.00 over here and it’s the same qualify for $200.00
over here, I'll take the $200.00. They are incentives, but I'll let Director Kleiner, who | assume is on the call,
talk about the details of how that plays out with respect to individual employees.
Chairman Dowd
Director Kleiner?
Kim Kleiner, Director of Administrative Services
Alderman Dowd, yes. So right now the Board of Aldermen has approved the high deductible plan and the
health design changes for the unaffiliated employees. We are currently in the middle of Open Enrollment. It
was extended until this Friday the 22™ so we are projected to have some data available next week on how
many employees have switched over to the high deductible plan. Originally, it was thought that we would
have this information as of last Friday. We extended Open Enrollment due to Open Enrollment now going
virtually and some hardship that we incurred getting that process up and running. So that data would be
available, hopefully, by the end of next week.
