City officials recently learned the premium for worker’s compensation insurance will raise $2,000 per month, based on claims filed against the city.
Finance Commissioner Dennis Miller broke the news during Monday’s city council meeting.
“It’s just a matter of letting you know it’s coming up at the next renewal,” Miller told the council.
The city is also facing a 6 or 7 percent increase to provide health insurance to employees.
Mayor Fred Kondritz questioned if employees are being “educated” on safety/lifting issues.
“Are we doing that job to prevent this compensation increase?" he asked. "Have we trained them and still have accidents?”
Commissioner Ronnie Baumgarte said that at one time the city had a policy in place rewarding workers for clean safety records. Baumgarte said the policy included a bonus for multiple months of no accidents.
“You can take a horse to water but can’t make them drink. This comp insurance is completely out of hand and I don’t know how you solve it,” Baumgarte said.
Miller said Fire Chief Shane Cockrum has attempted to provide ongoing safety training.
“I don’t know how cooperative everybody has been in attending and getting the job done but the chief is trying to keep an ongoing safety program going,” Miller said.
Kondritz said the increase will cause financial distress for the city.
“If we have a cancer in our budget it’s because of the compensation of our workers,” he said.
“You’re going to have accidents. Accidents are going to happen but they don’t have to be silly accidents,” Commissioner Don Storey added. “That’s where we get into trouble.”
“If we don’t adequately train our employees then it’s our fault,” Miller responded.
“We need to do something. We can’t just sit here and methodically every year go through a compensation increase in our budget. We just can’t do it,” Kondritz concluded. “Compensation is the ruination of the state of Illinois. We don’t want to be in that category.”
Miller said with the claims currently against the city, he can’t forecast a decrease in premiums for at least two or three years.
Jeremy Watkins was hired to fill a vacancy in the Benton Police Department. Watkins will be attending the police academy in January, it was announced.
The council also approved vacating two alleys in the Hayes and Tedrow/Johnson additions; and officially adopted amendments to the liquor ordinance, establishing new fees and hours of operation for taverns/bars and clubs and raising the annual fees for gaming machines. Baumgarte voted against the proposal.
