File Photo by Howard Owens
Coupled with a discussion about the astronomical rise in healthcare costs Monday evening, City Manager Rachael Tabelski and City Council members also kicked around the idea of paying a larger portion of gym memberships for city employees and council members.
The proposal was to pay from $100 to $500 toward a membership to one of three city facilities, with the $500 going to the brand-new Healthy Living YMCA. Employees already receive the $100 perk for gym memberships, and the $500 and adding council members is new.
The money would come from a slush fund of sorts, Tabelski said.
“So as the city continues to incentivize health and wellness of our employees through various programs, such as our premium reduction for their health screenings, physical fitness incentives for firefighters and police officers and the $100 gym reimbursement, I believe the city should partner with the new Genesee County YMCA and offer a discounted membership for all city employees, including council members," Tabelski said during the conference meeting at City Hall. "I've had many employees come to me, council members come to me, saying, wouldn't it be great if we could provide some kind of membership or incentive towards using the new facility.
"So I went and looked at this year's budget. We have interest in earnings right now at about $24,000 that might pop out around $50,000, so we could cover the majority of employees and council members if they were to sign up for this incentive," she said. "So I leave it to you to discuss and determine if this is something you'd like to move forward with.”
Meanwhile, the remaining budget talks included increasing the tax cap with an override that will require a future public hearing to deal with about $1 million more in expenses for healthcare and retirement this coming year.
The only council member who vocally seemed to have an issue with the proposal was Bob Bialkowski, who apparently was one of the people who asked Tabelski about such a perk.
Paying $100 to the other gyms and $500 to the YMCA, and all are “paying property tax, local tax,” seems “discriminatory,” he said.
“We could get rid of the $100 and force them to join the Y. It’s just an offering,” Tabelski said. “You're actually the council member that asked me about joining, right?”
To clarify, YMCA is a nonprofit and is exempt from paying county, city and school taxes.
Council President Eugene Jankowski Jr. and Kathy Briggs were in favor of the gym proposal.
“It’s a perk for employees, I like it,” Briggs said.
Jankowski said that a YMCA membership is from about $600 for a single to $1,000 for a family membership per year, so the person would still have “some out-of-pocket costs.”
“I think it's a great idea. I think you could get rid of the $100 if you'd like, and just do the $500 to the Y. I don't know that we'd want to incentivize $500 to any gym across America, you know what I mean, because it'd be way too hard for us to track,” Jankowski said. “I like the idea. I like where we're going with it, because in the long run, when you stay healthy, it saves us money.”
No one brought up the inclusion of council members in the package. If they are covered and all of them choose YMCA, that would mean an additional $4,500 in the budget, plus their annual salaries of $5,000 per council member and $7,000 for council president.
Council took a vote to move the topic to the next business meeting on Feb. 10, and approved it by 6-1. Members Briggs, Jankowski, Al McGinnis, Rich Richmond, David Twichell and Derek Geib voted yes and Bialkowski voted no. Paul Viele and Tammy Schmidt were absent.
