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CITY OF SOUTH BEND OFFICE OF THE CLERK
<br /> She continued, Our budget overview, there are two (2) slides here (referencing the presentation).
<br /> One(1)relates to our operations, as Dan explained, this is our first(1St)year being separated from
<br /> the Administration and Finance budget. We are a small but mighty team of six (6) people. This is
<br /> our salary and benefits associated with our team specifically. The next slide relates to the budget
<br /> overview for three (3) of the funds, the largest is the#711, or the Health Insurance Claims Fund.
<br /> We have unemployment and parental leave. Parental leave and unemployment are allocations to
<br /> departments per employee, small fractions of salaries to fund those. Parental leave,as you'll notice
<br /> later, is funded based on anticipated births of forty (40), last year we had 38. This year in the first
<br /> (Pt) half of the year we're only at thirteen (13) but it's looking up, there are more babies coming.
<br /> That number could be closer to forty(40)by the end of the year.
<br /> She went on, So the highlights that we'd like to focus on quickly from the charts that you just saw,
<br /> the first (1St) relates to a personnel request, this is for the Senior HR Generalist that focuses on
<br /> Public Safety. So, this role really serves all aspects of human resources for both Police and Fire.
<br /> And while it handles a lot of routine, typical questions of employees, things like that, it has taken
<br /> on a much higher level of initiative. So, things like developing peer-support service policies for
<br /> the Fire Department.Things like developing a promotions policy for the Police Department. Much
<br /> higher-level initiatives, working very closely with Legal and trying to ensure legal compliance,
<br /> things like that. So that request is a six percent (6%) increase from the salary cap currently. The
<br /> Health Insurance Fund, in recent years we've been really lucky, and we've been able to keep those
<br /> costs down significantly. I think our run of luck might be over. That's not uncommon, it's very
<br /> common when it comes to employers across the board, the City is no exception. The increase is
<br /> expected to be a little less than seventeen percent (17%) next year. As Dan mentioned, the City's
<br /> done a great job of having healthy funds available for that and this year we're spending that down,
<br /> we'll continue to spend that down next year. That means that while we do have to increase
<br /> allocations for departments on a per employee basis,the current allocation is$9,960 per employee.
<br /> Just under $10,000. That will have to increase to $11,500 per employee. But even in prior years
<br /> we've been close to $15,000. I think that there were years recently where there was $16,000 per
<br /> employee. So,relatively low when it comes to that because we're able to spend down that account.
<br /> We're also evaluating an increase of employee side premiums, but we want to try to be mindful of
<br /> the costs that employees face as well and make our benefits competitive.
<br /> She continued, The next aspect, in order to help increase recruitment efforts, employee education,
<br /> make a more robust City benefit policy, we currently have in human resources, we have the PPO
<br /> policy, we have the HRA, we would like to explore transitioning that HRA to an HSA. That
<br /> basically allows you to set aside money on a pre-tax basis to pay for qualified medical expenses.
<br /> And the City does contribute to that Fund for employees who choose to participate. And that is the
<br /> employee's money it doesn't go away. They're able to save it and use it for expenses, if not this
<br /> year, in future years even if they leave the City. So, we'd like to try and explore that for 2020. And
<br /> finally, we just touched on this already, we will continue to fund parental leave. As I mentioned,
<br /> forty (40) births, we had very close to that last year, I anticipate we'll have pretty close to that.
<br /> That's the number that's being budgeted for this year.
<br /> Legal Department
<br /> Stephanie Steele, Corporation Counsel for the City of South Bend with offices on the 12th floor of
<br /> the County-City Building, stated,Thank you and good evening, Council. We appreciate your time
<br /> this evening. The City's Legal Department has undertaken a lot of meaningful initiatives this year.
<br /> EXCELLENCE ACCOUNTABILITY ! INNOVATION INCLUSION EMPOWERMENT
<br /> 455 County-City Building 227W Jefferson Bvld South Bend,Indiana 46601 p 574.235.9221 f 574.235.9173 TTD 574.235.5567 www.southbendin.gov
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