Finance committee discusses township contracts, health insurance

The finance committee of the Hillsboro City Council met Thursday to discuss health insurance and pending contracts between the city and surrounding townships. 

Finance committee chairperson Peter Pence said that the committee voted to go into executive session regarding the insurance. The committee, which includes Pence, Dave Shoemaker and Rod Daniels, requested the city's insurance agent Doug Wagoner joint them in executive session, along with Hillsboro Mayor Dick Zink and Safety and Service Director Ralph Holt. 

After they voted to go back into regular session, Pence said that the committee immediately voted to go back into executive session, this time to discuss township contracts. 

"No one was invited to go into that executive session with the committee," Pence said. "There were no recommendations (that resulted) out of either one of those executive sessions."

In May, council voted to authorized the safety and service director to negotiate the new contracts for Hillsboro Fire and Rescue with Hamer, Jackson, Liberty, New Market, Paint, Penn and Washington townships

    During the Aug. 9 council meeting, township legal counsel Jim Grandey and township trustees addressed council saying that they could not affording the increases without putting on levies. The townships have said the increases in the fire contracts are between 42 percent and 76.34 percent. The matter was put in council’s finance committee and street and safety committee for review. The finance committee has met several times on the matter, but mostly in executive session. During the September regular session of council, Pence said the committee was still gathering information. The townships had offered a 10-percent increase to the existing contracts for 2011, with the option to negotiate subsequent years. The townships later said they would pay a 12-percent increase.

Pence told The Highland County Press Thursday that the committee will meet again in the coming week and that he hopes to have a recommendation on the township contracts by the Oct. 12 council meeting. Council typically meetings the second Monday of each month, but the meeting has been moved to accommodate the Columbus Day Holiday on Oct. 11.

"We're still gathering information," Pence said. "We're trying to get as much information as we can regarding the operation of fire and EMS services."

Pence said he could not say for certain if the committee would have a recommendation for the full council, but "that would be the hope. I won't say for sure that we will, but that is what we are shooting for.

"Unfortunately when things are good (financially) things are just allowed to happen," Pence said. "When everyone's wallets get a little light, you start looking at what you can do to get by. Unfortunately, that's where we're at."