Racine County Board to keep their health insurance

Oct. 31--YORKVILLE -- While municipalities debate health insurance benefits for its workers, the Racine County Board argued Tuesday over a different group receiving health insurance -- themselves.

In 2011, the County Board passed a resolution effectively eliminating health insurance for supervisors who would be elected in 2012 and beyond.

However, those elected before the policy change are allowed to keep their health insurance and pay the same rates as county employees.

Today, of the 21 County Board seats, 10 are eligible for benefits and nine are currently accepting county health insurance, which costs the county roughly $125,000 per year.

On Tuesday, 17 of the 20 board members met for a meeting of the Committee of the Whole to discuss a resolution that could eliminate health insurance for all supervisors starting in 2020.

Supervisor Robert Miller of Mount Pleasant, the longest serving member of the current board and the only member eligible for the retirement benefits, recused himself from the debate and vote on the resolution and left the meeting.

Supervisors QA Shakoor II, Fabi Maldonado, both of Racine, and Tom Hincz, of the Town of Waterford, were excused from the meeting. One seat is vacant.

The resolution failed 12-4 with supervisors Janet Bernberg of Wind Point, Melissa Kaprelian-Becker and Nick Demske of Racine and Don Trottier of Mount Pleasant being the only board members to vote in favor.

Some supervisors who voted against the resolution do not receive the health care benefits because they were elected after 2012.

Bernberg was the author of the resolution and stated her motivation for her proposal was hearing that a unnamed supervisor considered not running for re-election but decided to do so because "the health insurance was too much to pass up"

"If someone is doing it for the health insurance, to me, that's not the priority of being on the County Board," Bernberg said.

Bernberg said she was "very disappointed in my colleagues" who voted against the resolution.

"I really think it's about self-interest, it's not about the constituents, it's not about our employees that we should be thinking about," Bernberg said. "It says a lot about the character of the individuals."

Background

During the debate in the lead up to the vote, County Board Chairman Russell Clark of Racine reminded his fellow supervisors of the history of the policy and distributed a document that showed what the County Board's budget and health care costs were over the years.

According to the document Clark distributed, it showed that in 2010 the board had a budget of more than $535,000 and health care costs of $304,000.

With supervisors leaving the board after losing an election or for another reason, the health insurance costs have gone down to $125,364.

"The health insurance is doing what it's supposed to be doing with the changes that we made," Clark said.

Bernberg acknowledged the policy is working "but it's not fast enough."

Also present at the meeting was an outside attorney, Andrew Phillips, who works with the Wisconsin Counties Association, who was brought in to discuss possible conflicts of interest in regard to the vote.

Phillips said because the resolution stated it would discontinue the health insurance in the next term, that would cure the board of any legal questions when it comes to voting on the health benefits of themselves or other board members.

Full-time vs. Part-time

A lot of the debate focused on what is considered full-time and part-time.

Bernberg stated the health care insurance benefit is for full-time county employees and supervisors are "at best, very part-time workers."

"When a person is on Medicare and county insurance, the county becomes the primary insurer and the first to pay claims," Bernberg said. "I realize this will not make me popular but I feel that it is the right thing to do."

Vice Chairman David Cooke of Racine said although supervisors do not work conventional hours like county workers, they should not be disqualified.

"I get calls at 5:15 in the morning, I get calls at 9 o'clock at night," Cooke said. "I get calls on 3 o'clock on Saturday afternoon. I get calls when I'm sitting in church at 10 o'clock on Sunday morning... am I punching a clock 30 hours a week? No. I'm available 24-hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year."

Kaprelian-Becker asked what would happen if it were up to the voters to decide if supervisors should get insurance?

"I don't think they would be in favor of it whatsoever," Kaprelian-Becker said. "We're looking to serve the population to make all the population better and give a voice to those who often times don't have a voice. And all of a sudden when we're screaming 'Well we should have this benefit because we're making ourselves available 365 days a year,' ... it doesn't sit in my core right. My moral and ethical compass goes all over the place."

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