June 18, 2024 - The Shelby County Commissioners moved forward with the Texas Association of Counties (TAC) Blue Cross Blue Shield group health insurance plan for 2025 for the county during their June 12, 2024 meeting.
County Judge Allison Harbison commented their is an 8.9% increase in the expense of the plan; however, Judge Harbison said this is an increase other counties have already had to contend with for a longer period of time.
Clint Porterfield, County Auditor, referenced some detailed information provided for the commissioners to consider.
“You can see that in some of your data that for last year, or the year that was focused on, the TAC paid out one million more dollars in claims than money we paid in to the program. So we can see rather that our formula is going to be skewed from the full average because of that. And that's also what happened with the previous year. So we've had some high cost claims here in the last couple of years,” said Porterfield.
Porterfield commented that Shelby County has a good plan for medical an prescription coverage, and that the increase will be a $95,000 increase to the county’s budget with an average of 100 to 110 employees on health insurance.
Commissioner McSwain moved to approve the insurance plan, keep the same co-pay and keep the plan as-is. His motion was seconded by Commissioner Jimmy Lout and the motion carried.
“The sad part about this, we know we're restricted by the state on how much we revenue we can raise each year and this will take about a fourth of our new revenue that we can raise,” said Commissioner McSwain. “But it's a good investment”
The commissioners heard report from Eric Carver with Axley & Rode, LLP. on the Fiscal Year 2023 Financial Report for Shelby County. (Click here to review the report)
Carver provided a favorable report with one concern annually brought to the commissioners’ attention.
“We do have a deficiency would bring your attention, we've talked about it for years, it's really your JPs, there's a vulnerability on this there just because you don't have two or three people in the office. I'm not saying do anything different. It's just be aware there's a financial risk because you have one person sort of controlling the entire financial process related to this,” said Carver. “And y'all monitor and we detect something after the fact but you don't have the preventative in place with multiple people. Again, I'm just making y'all aware of it. I've heard that before nothing new. I'm not recommending really changing things, just be aware of that at least.”
Commissioner Roscoe McSwain moved to accept the report, and the motion was seconded by Commissioner Tom Bellmyer. The motion carried.
The commissioners approved giving permission for Pct 2 and Pct 3 Commissioner to access private property on CR 2335 to relocate debris.
Commissioner Lout moved to approve an agreement discussed by County Attorney John Price, and Commissioner Stevie Smith seconded the motion. The motion carried.
The meeting was adjourned at 10:24am.
Agenda items approved during the meeting include: 1. Minutes of May 1, 2024 Special meeting, May 8, 2024 Regular meeting, May 15, 2024 Special meeting, May 22, 2024 Special meeting, and May 29, 2024 Special meeting of the Shelby County Commissioner’s Court. 2. Pay weekly expenses. 3. Officers Report. 4. Shelby County Fiscal Year 2023 Annual Financial Report by Eric Carver, C.P.A. with Axley & Rode, LLP. 5. Texas Association of Counties Blue Cross Blue Shield Group Health Insurance plan for FY2025. 6. Permission for Pct 2 and Pct 3 Commissioner to access private property on CR 2335 to relocate debris. 7. Adjourn. Agenda items tabled during the meeting include: 1. Review and possibly award bid for four (4) day cab haul trucks for the Road and Bridge Department.
