Aldermen meet to discuss insurance

Sept. 30--NATCHEZ -- The Natchez Board of Aldermen took action Thursday in an effort to keep health insurance coverage for employees from expiring Saturday.

The mayor and board of aldermen reconvened a meeting they recessed Tuesday at City Attorney Robert "Bob" Latham's request to address issues pertaining to the city's insurance.

The board of aldermen voted at its at its Sept. 13 meeting to renew its health insurance coverage with Leslie "Les" Smith of LS & Associates in Southaven at the board's Sept. 13 meeting. The city switched Smith's firm in September 2015.

The meeting quickly devolved into accusations of some aldermen being "wined and dined" in exchange for their support of Smith's coverage plan and a back-and-forth between Smith and representatives from Ross & Yerger Insurance, who appeared before the board to present a plan they said could have saved the city $900,000 last year and cut employees' insurance premiums as well.

At the same meeting, Ward 3 Alderwoman Sarah Smith and Ward 5 Alderman Benjamin Davis voted for motion that failed to pass to rescind the renewal of the city's contract with Les Smith.

At Tuesday's meeting, Sarah Smith again made a motion to rescind the LS & Associates, saying she had received more communication from members of the public on the topic of insurance than she has on any other issues she has dealt with in her four years as an alderwoman.

City employees have also been circulating a petition to change the city's insurance provider, and some employees have complained that they have outstanding claims that have not been paid by the provider.

Tuesday's motion to rescind failed with only Sarah Smith and Davis voting for it.

Sarah Smith and Davis were the only aldermen who voted against a motion Thursday authorizing city staff to execute what appeared to be insurance application forms Latham said had to be filled out and returned to LS & Associates by Thursday. Ward 2 Alderman Billie Joe Frazier was not present at the meeting.

Latham explained to the aldermen that he had received the forms from City Hall staff last week and was told the documents were an insurance contract he needed to review.

Upon inspection of the documents, Latham said he discovered the three sets of documents he received appear to be an overview of insurance rates and two applications for group insurance and life insurance.

Latham said he forwarded those documents to the city's personnel officer, Brenda Cantu, who he thought would have the necessary information to fill out the documents.

As of Thursday's meeting, the documents had not been filled out and sent to the insurance provider.

"As I understand it ... if these documents are not sent (today), the insurance will expire Saturday, and there will be no more coverage for the employees," Latham said.

Latham said he had asked Cantu be present at the meeting, but understood she had an emergency arise and left town.

Latham said he did not know why the documents had not been filled out, and no other officials at the meeting knew either.

Latham said he asked the board to meet because he thought it best that if the documents needed to be filled out and signed, the aldermen approve the execution of the applications first.

Sarah Smith asked who actually needed to sign the documents and whether it was the mayor, city clerk, city attorney or staff.

Ward 1 Alderwoman Joyce Arceneaux-Mathis explained that she, Ward 6 Alderman Dan Dillard, former City Clerk Donnie Holloway and "the insurance man" were present when the forms were signed last year. The mayor or the city clerk signed the documents, Arceneaux-Mathis said.

Mayor Darryl Grennell may need to sign this year's documents, Arceneaux-Mathis said, because Interim City Clerk Melissa Hawk's position has not been officially appointed city clerk.

Dillard said with the urgency of the situation, it would be best if the documents were scanned and emailed to LS & Associates.

Dillard said he had provided Interim City Clerk Melissa Hawk with the insurance provider's telephone number, in case she or other city staff needed assistance in completing the forms.

Sarah Smith said after the meeting she voted against completing the forms because she does not support doing business with LS & Associates.

Davis said after the meeting that as chair of the city's fire committee, he must represent the wishes of the firefighters, who he has said have expressed dissatisfaction with the current insurance provider.

"I am just up here trying to take care of our employees," he said.

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