Mount Dora council members move to cut their own health insurance [The Orlando Sentinel, Fla.]

Aug. 03--MOUNT DORA -- Looking for ways to patch a budget deficit, City Council members have their eyes on cutting out one of their own longtime perks: health insurance.

For at least two decades, the city has offered health insurance to council members and their families in one form or another. At a recent workshop, council members directed staffers to prepare a budget for next fiscal year that would leave out the city's cost for health insurance offered to council members.

If council members want to continue receiving the employee health insurance, they would have to open their wallets and pay the full cost.

This fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30, Mount Dora estimates it will spend $21,750 in health-care costs to council members, or about $2,590 less than the previous year. Council members pay the same amount as full-time city employees for the benefit depending on the type of coverage they receive and whether they tack on family members to the plan.

"This is long overdue," Mayor Melissa DeMarco said in support of doing away with offering council members health insurance. "No other part-time employee is afforded this type of benefit...[The savings] could make the difference in saving an employee's position."

In addition to being offered health insurance, council members earn an annual salary of $6,110, and the mayor receives $10,128 a year. DeMarco donates 25 percent of her salary into the city's parks and recreation coffers.

Of Mount Dora's seven council members, Dennis Wood, Tom Eppich, James Homich and Janet Coffman opted to receive the health-insurance benefit.

Homich pays about $343 per month, Wood and Eppich each pay about $294 and Coffman, who has single coverage, pays about $10.

When contacted last week, Wood said the amount of money Mount Dora spends on the benefit is a "significant amount of money," but the city could look at greater ways to reduce expenses.

"I think there are a lot of other places the city could look toward to cut," Wood, 63, said. "It's a nice benefit for the money...But right now my mind is not made up, and I'd like to see more discussion."

Wood did not attend the city's budget workshops because he was out of town. However, in a July 15 e-mail to City Manager Mike Quinn, Wood said discussion about cutting council members health-care costs "were an attempt to save pennies and not discuss some real dollar cost savings."

He proposed, for example, seeking private sponsorships for city-sponsored events and slowing down and seeking grants on some capital-improvement projects.

Mount Dora is grappling with how to close an estimated $289,900 budget deficit in the next fiscal year without changing the city's property tax rate. City officials say this marks the fourth straight year of budget cutbacks due to "an economic heartburn" of sinking property values and a miserable economy. The health-insurance issue was one of several cost-cutting ideas discussed at the July budget workshop.

Before voting on the new spending plan, council members will have to decide whether to gradually wean themselves off the health insurance or cut it off "cold turkey," Quinn said.

He added the city is moving forward with setting up an employee health clinic to reduce health-care expenses, and council members may be able to utilize the facility as an alternative.

Martin E. Comas can be reached at mcomas@orlandosentinel.com or 352-742-5927.

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