The Guilford County Board of Commissioners may have taken much of the summer off, but the commissioners are now working up a storm and this week the board called a special work session for Thursday afternoon, Oct. 17.
That meeting, where the commissioners will discuss several key county matters including the hot button issue of the county employee health plan, is in addition to a regular televised commissioners meeting later that day at 5:30 p.m.
At the afternoon work session, which will be held in the third-floor conference room of the county-owned BB&T building in downtown Greensboro, the commissioners will take a deep dive into a matter that’s become a pressing issue: the very attractive, but also very expensive, health care plan provided to Guilford County’s roughly 2,300 employees.
The board is considering some changes in the county’s 2020 Group Health Plan. Employees, of course, don’t want to see any benefits reduced; however, the county is saddled with the problem of limited funds at a time when health care insurance is becoming more and more expensive.
In past work sessions on this issue, Guilford County Manager Marty Lawing and other county administrators have argued that having robust employee benefits is key to retaining good employees.
At the Thursday work session, the board also plans to discuss the Guilford County Foster Care Plan and the new mental health campus now under construction.
I hope the County considers all the benefit cuts that have happened in the last 15 years that affect hiring and retention among County employees. People look at current and retirement benefits when considering jobs and that impacts hiring and retention. With problems right now hiring people in Emergency Services and the Sheriff’s Department, they need to be extremely aware of any more benefit cuts. It’s really pitiful when lower-level employees retire with 25+ years of service and their monthly retirement pay doesn’t cover the cost of their monthly buy-in to the health insurance premium (this happened to us when my husband retired after more than 25 years of service as a fulltime 911 dispatcher for several years until the premium was lowered for certain retirees).
County Commissioners should be reminded that all of them get some County benefits for serving just one term as a Commissioner for the rest of their lives while many County employees may work for 25+ years, retire and still must make premium payments or buy back time in order to get the same level of benefits which often doesn’t seem quite fair. Commissioners need to be aware of the overall budget while also meeting their contract with past and current employees and the future needs of hires in order to efficiently serve the County. That may mean educating the public about the need to readjust expectations of services or the need to raise taxes in order to meet the financial obligation of providing employee benefits.
I am certain that all the hiring problems at the sheriff’s office aren’t due to county pay and/or benefits…That is an excuse made by the problem-maker…