Live Oak city councilors will address the city’s insurance opt-out program at a workshop later this month following a suggestion by Councilman Adam Prins to either abolish the program or to modify it.

“It has become a point of contention among some employees of late and I thought that the council needed to have a discussion about it,” said Prins.

Prins admitted that he is opted out of the city’s group insurance program.

“What really got me thinking about this is I made a statement at our last meeting that it is the city’s responsibility to take care of employees and it is the employees responsibility to take care of their families,” he said. “And then I started thinking I’m using this money because I can’t afford to put them (his family) on my family group insurance because it’s almost $1,300 a month and I’m using this opt-out money to buy an insurance policy for my family and so I’m contradicting myself and I’m not going to do that, so I’m going to stop taking the opt-out.”

Prins suggested that if the panel doesn’t abolish the ordinance then it should be modified to only reimburse the employee the amount of the group health insurance policy they chose in place of the city’s. The reimbursed amount would be capped at the city’s premium amount, with anything over being the responsibility of the employee.

Councilman David Burch then proposed the panel discuss the matter at a workshop.

The idea behind the ordinance was to allow city employees and elected officials who were already on another qualifying group plan, or could get on one cheaper than the city’s, such as from a spouse, could then waive health insurance coverage provided by the city and receive the insurance premium paid by the city as a reimbursement into the employee’s paycheck.

According to City Administrator Bob Farley, if the program was eliminated it would still cost the city about $127,000 because the city would be adding the employees to the insurance program, unless the person still chose not to participate.

The council unanimously decided to discuss the issue further in a workshop scheduled for 5:30 p.m., on Sept. 27. The recessed City Council meeting scheduled for the same night will be at 6:30 p.m.

Council to look into four day work week

A proposal by Live Oak’s city administrator to go to a four day work week to save on utility costs will be heard in a workshop at the end of the month.

Live Oak City Administrator Bob Farley proposed the measure at Tuesday’s City Council meeting. Farley noted that by cutting a day from the work week, the city of Live Oak would save 20 percent on utilities cost each month, or $6,644.04 a year. The utilities saved would be electricity, water and gas.

To compensate for losing the fifth day, Farley proposed extending hours of operation to the four from 7 a.m. until 6 p.m.

The proposal died for lack of a motion Tuesday night, but Councilman David Burch asked that the panel discuss the proposal at a workshop, which was approved unanimously.

The workshop is scheduled for Sept. 27 at 5:30 p.m. The recessed City Council meeting scheduled for the same night will be at 6:30 p.m.