City benefit battle goes on

Jenny Marder

City employees took over the City Council meeting on Monday for two

hours of public comments decrying a situation they claim has

plummeted from bad to worse.

Instead of being thrilled that her daughter made All-Star soccer

this year, Julie Christie said she is terrified that she won’t be

able to afford the cost of practice.

It’s getting harder for Stacy Ramsey to find money for rent and

utilities and she’s not sure what she’d do if her car broke down.

With health care costs shooting through the roof, Christie and

Ramsey are among hundreds of city employees who say they will have to

make sacrifices to afford paying more into their health insurance.

City officials say that skyrocketing health care costs are a

reality in the face of rising medical and pharmaceutical costs and

ever-advancing technology. They are asking that employees to help

cover that cost by chipping in more.

“I’m optimistic that we can continue to work to reach agreements

with all of the employee associations,” said Assistant City

Administrator Bill Workman.

Employees in Huntington Beach can choose between an HMO plan,

provided by Health Net, and a more flexible point-of-service plan,

commonly known as a PPO, which is administered by the city.

The city already contributes anywhere from $236 to $814 per

employee, depending on the health care plan and number of dependents.

Employees, who are hoping the city will pay more now that costs are

rising, make up the difference.

Under the city’s latest proposal brought up in negotiations,

employees who choose the PPO could pay as much as $343 per month for

a plan that now costs $62 per month, said Ray Whitmer, secretary

treasurer of the Teamsters Local 911. Those with the HMO would not

pay more, Whitmer said.

Whitmer fears that the city is trying to push employees toward

choosing an “inferior HMO option.” Critics say that Health Net, which

the city currently offers, is a small provider with a small network.

“There are other [HMO] carriers like Blue Shield and Blue Cross

with substantially larger networks,” Whitmer said. “Instead of

involving employees early on, [the city] shut employees out, excluded

bargaining groups and came up with Health Net as the only

alternative.”

Workman said that negotiations are still ongoing and nothing is

yet set in stone.

The city’s insurance advisory committee spent several months

looking at proposals and quotes from a long list of firms, Workman

said.

“When I got to the point of making offers to employees, the Health

Net proposal was a sound proposal,” Workman said. “It was presented

as a proposal for employees to consider.”

Workman added that options involving other providers could still

be set forth.

John Von Holle, president of the Municipal Employees Assn., warned

that employees may soon start looking elsewhere.

“When the place falls apart because employees start leaving, you

start having undesirable effects coming to the city,” Von Holle said

at the meeting on Monday. “Eventually it affects the property

values.”

Under the guidance of union leaders, members of the Municipal

Employees Assn. have pledged to continue flooding the chambers until

the city comes up with revenue to help offset the health care

increases.

More than 35 employees, bearing buttons that read “Serf City

Employee,” showed up to speak Monday night. Even more are expected to

speak at the Dec. 15 meeting.

“To keep this city one of the safest, we need the finest and most

dedicated employees,” said Ramsey, who works on police records.

“We’re not asking the city to make us millionaires, we only want to

keep what we have.”

* JENNY MARDER covers City Hall. She can be reached at (714)

965-7173 or by e-mail at jenny.marder@latimes.com.