Clinton County Fiscal Court held a marathon special meeting last Tuesday evening in the upstairs courtroom of the courthouse with all members present and a busy agenda on tap.

The court dealt with the budget, a cost-of-living wage increase for employees and employee salaries; a separate article on those issues appears beginning on page 1.

A lengthy part of the two and-a-half hour meeting dealt with three presentations from insurance carriers vying to supply the county with employee health insurance for the coming year.

Those making presentations included the current provider, Grady Wilson of Wilson and Associates, which offers Anthem coverage; representatives from Neace Likins Insurance and Van Meter Insurance Group out of Bowling Green, the latter two agencies offering Humana coverage.

Representatives from each agency gave detailed presentations, and Administrative Assistant Penny Jo Stearns also gave the court a brief type insurance program offered by the state. After all the proposals were in, the court opted to switch carriers and accepted the Van Meter Group proposal to provide employee (optional) insurance coverage for the upcoming year.

The option plan chosen by the court has a $1,500 deductible, down considerably from the current deductible for individuals and $3,000 for families, with an 80/20 co-insurance rate and maximum out-of-pocket of $6,350 per individual and $12,700 per family. The current year’s deductible is $5,000.

The plan also allows for employees who participate in the county’s insurance plan to purchase dental and vision policies separately ($7 per month vision and $23 dental).

The insurance also has a “silver” plan where employees can do certain things to earn points that would allow some reduction in cost.

The amount of monthly out-of-pocket expense per employee will remain at $100, while the county’s total annual cost will be $234,753, down over $5,000 from the current rate the county is paying at $239,930 to provide health insurance to almost 40 employees who participate.

The motion to accept Van Meter’s proposal was made by Magistrate Riddle and passed by unanimous vote.

The court also heard an Occupational Tax revenue quarterly report from OT administrator Virginia Conner.

The report reflected revenue as of March 31 was $190,890 with a projected quarterly revenue, after the new 1.25 cents per $100 income earned (compared to .75 cents) would be $286,335, a quarterly increase of $95,445 and annual increase from $800,000 to $1,049,898.

Net profit, which runs by fiscal year, not calendar year, is estimated to generate a little over $102,000 additionally each year with the newly adopted rate.

In other business, the court:

* Approved the monthly treasurer’s report, approved fund transfers and voted to pay claims and bills.

While paying claims and bills, several questions pertaining to some specific bills were asked and when a vote was taken, it resulted in the first of three split (and tie) votes that occurred at the meeting.

The motion to pay claims and bills resulted in a three-three tie with Magistrates Mickey Riddle, Ricky Craig and Patty Guinn voting no; Magistrates Hershell Key, Johnny Russell and Terry Buster voting yes and the motion passed 4-3 with Judge/Executive Richard Armstrong casting a tie-breaking yes vote.

* Bids were opened on various road materials, with bids on different materials being made by Gaddie-Shamrock, Albany Quarry and Albany Building Center. The court, on a motion by Magistrate Craig, voted to accept all bids and purchase items on an as needed basis from each company.

* Voted to advertise for home incarceration GPS monitoring of jail inmates. Apparently a company is interested in offering the service to supply the device for inmates sentenced to home incarceration at $10 per inmate, whereas the jail is currently having to pay around $30 per inmate for the monitoring service.

* Voted to approve a budget amendment for the sheriff’s department. Sheriff Jim Guffey told the court the amendment did not involve any type of increase, but only allowed for his office to receive advance funding from the state.

* Administrative Assistant Penny Jo Stearns announced that County Clerk Shelia Booher had turned in the final amount of $4,000 to the county in excess fees.

The next regular meeting of Clinton Fiscal Court is scheduled for Thursday, August 16 at 5 p.m. and is open to the general public.

New health insurance carrier approved