Tuesday, March 23, 2010
City Council on TV
Watching tonight's City Council meeting, in particular the discussions regarding the city's underfunding of the health insurance trust fund, I am struck by that only a couple of councilors seem to even grasp what the controversy is. Oy.
Of the ones who I listened to, only Blackmer, Bloom, Bond and Marden seemed to get that the issue is one of law regarding how to fund the trust. I especially appreciated Bloom's comment and Mayor Alcombright's agreement that the city's auditor, Marlow, should have known about the law that spells out how to fund the trust.
The fact that the law requires the fund to be funded based upon premiums (aka "working rate") is set up that way to avoid two issues; the obvious is 1) gross underfunding that puts the city at risk when the claims come due, and 2) to avoid the misuse of health insurance funds being used for expenses other than healthcare.
It really bothers me that people are still defending or rationalizing John Barrett's accounting methods. ¶ 9:04 PM
Of the ones who I listened to, only Blackmer, Bloom, Bond and Marden seemed to get that the issue is one of law regarding how to fund the trust. I especially appreciated Bloom's comment and Mayor Alcombright's agreement that the city's auditor, Marlow, should have known about the law that spells out how to fund the trust.
The fact that the law requires the fund to be funded based upon premiums (aka "working rate") is set up that way to avoid two issues; the obvious is 1) gross underfunding that puts the city at risk when the claims come due, and 2) to avoid the misuse of health insurance funds being used for expenses other than healthcare.
It really bothers me that people are still defending or rationalizing John Barrett's accounting methods. ¶ 9:04 PM
