October 24, 2023, Camden County Commission meeting at 10:00 a.m.

The Gadfly attended the October 24, 2023, Camden County Commission meeting at 10:00 a.m.

All commissioners were present.

As the meeting began, Commissioner Gohagan asked to amend the agenda to add the McGrath Letter and note that the County Clerk’s NVRA bid was going to be a bid acceptance. This was approved by the Commission.

Commissioner Gohagan explained that he had reviewed some of the medical insurance financial numbers and decided to turn that information over to McGrath for them to review. Commissioner Gohagan read a letter he subsequently received from McGrath, the county’s insurance advisor. It was addressed to the Commission from David Von Gunten of the McGrath Insurance Group. The letter referenced an October 19, 2023 Open Meeting.

“During the meeting and discussion of the medical plan represented by Jeremy Billington, Commissioner Gohagan asked what the total plan spend was for plan year ended 2021. Reading from a report he [Billington] stated, $2.2 million. Mr. Gohagen[sic] asked him if that was correct and to repeat his answer, Jeremy then confirmed this same amount, $2.2 million. When Kendra Hicks, Camden County Treasurer, was asked the total spend for 2021 as per a report provided to Mr. Gohagen [sic] dated 8/29/23, the report shows a total spend of $2,836,550.75. A $636,55.75 difference in reporting is a major cause for concern.

As the contracted insurance advisor to Camden County we suggest a full accounting of all health care plan expenses be performed for the last 5 years. We recommend the County request a review be performed by two county departments to review all data to account for monies spent for the plan. We recommend two departments, the treasurer’s office and the auditor’s office each perform their own independent review of the data. Due to the fact that these are previously expired contract years, the information should be readily available and provided to the assigned departments in a timely manner, 10 business days.

Each department should be able to reconcile the reports and provide their findings to the Commission in a timely manner as well.”

To explain a bit, Billington is the agent of record for Camden County’s self-funded group health plan through Mutual Medical. Rather than contract with a traditional health plan provider, Camden County funds its own health plan for county employees.

This saves Camden County money until a plan member becomes gravely ill or severely injured. In that case, the Camden County health plan tells the sick (expensive) member that if they switch to the Affordable Care Act (ACA), Camden County will pay all of their out-of-pocket costs for the ACA insurance. In effect, it appears Camden County is using the Affordable Care Act as catastrophic medical insurance which was absolutely not its intended purpose.

Now we’re hearing that the Treasurer’s records show that Camden County spent over $2.8 million on the group health plan in 2021, but Billington is reporting that they only spent $2.2 million?!?

Sheesh. I’m not familiar with the new Common Core math, but that doesn’t sound like a simple rounding error to me.

Presiding Commissioner Skelton felt that the County Auditor should look into these discrepancies and have a report back in the first week of November.

I asked the Commission if the missing $600,000 could be the costs associated with employees who were put on the Affordable Care Act? They did not know. I asked if the County Auditor audits the group health insurance costs annually? The County Treasurer told me that the numbers she provided (the $2.8 million) had already been audited by the outside auditor. Apparently, the 2021 outside audit has finally been completed. Just in time….

After that rough start, we entered into the actual agenda.

The first agenda item was Bid Award – Clerk- 231012 NVRA Bid.

There was one bid.

Presiding Commissioner Skelton stated that this was the only bid and County Clerk Rowland Todd recommended that it be accepted. The bid was from E.J. Rice Company.

The Commission accepted this bid unanimously.

The second agenda item was Bid Opening-Health Dept-231024 Electrical Work.

There were no bids. Presiding Commissioner Skelton was surprised there were none. They advertised in the newspaper and contacted at least a half dozen electrical companies.

This item was tabled so they could contact more vendors.

The third agenda item was Bid Opening-Recorder-231024 Plat Cabinets.

The county received one bid for two plat cabinets at $10,340.20 per cabinet. Everyone seemed surprised by the cost, but I guess they’re hard to find. The representative from the Recorder’s Office said this vendor has a monopoly on this type of cabinet and she recommended it be tabled.

This item was tabled for review.

The fourth agenda item was EMA Grant Award.

This was a $61,000 Performance Grant.

The Commission unanimously approved the acceptance of this grant.

The fifth agenda item was 2024 CERF Election Form.

CERF is the Missouri County Employee Retirement Fund. The Commission voted unanimously to keep the county’s current contribution match at 4%.

The sixth agenda item was Discuss Reduction in Coverage by Travelers Insurance.

Presiding Commissioner Skelton explained that Travelers Insurance will not cover the impact of PFAS chemicals anymore. PFAS (otherwise known as forever chemicals) are released by waste treatment sites and manufacturing processes. They linger in the body and can accumulate. You can read more about them here.

The long and the short of it is that the county’s insurance doesn’t want to be responsible for insuring against them.

The final agenda item was the C-PACE ordinance.

C-PACE allows separate financing for windows, HVAC units, and other environmental and energy efficient improvements on commercial development projects. Chris Foster was present at the meeting and he explained that builders can get better interest rates on C-PACE financing and it makes funding commercial projects much easier. Foster said that he currently has a shovel-ready project that is ready to go pending the approval of the county ordinance. C-PACE would be available for commercial projects like apartment buildings, shopping centers, and hospitality projects.

The ordinance authorizing C-PACE financing in Camden County was approved unanimously by the Commission.

Commissioner Gohagan mentioned that Camdenton is seeking to annex the properties along North Business Route 5 all the way up to the MODOT lot at Highway 5. According to Commissioner Skelton, most of the businesses along Route 5 are interested, but the Ozark Amphitheater was holding out.

There will be a Sheriff’s auction on Saturday (October 28) at 1:00 p.m. in the impound lot. It will be listed on Bryant Auction’s website.

There will also be a county auction in April of 2024. A burial casket will be included in the items.

And that was that.