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After being asked to look at options for cost-effective county employee benefits, Chambers County Highway Department head Josh Harvill presented a new option for employee benefits at the budget meeting to the Chambers County Commission on Monday. The benefits package was based on the inflation measure for the COLA (Cost-of-Living Adjustment).

The county came up with a way to analyze the COLA based on the Consumer Price Index, a direction recommended by an evergreen study created by a consulting firm. 

“It’s just something to look at,” Harvill said. “There are other inflation measures out there. There are other companies that do things very similar to the consumer price index. That’s just one.”

Inflation experts have averaged inflation rates anywhere from 2.75% to 4%, depending on the statistics and tools used. 

Harvill said he got the idea for the benefits package from other counties. This option would only be available to employees after they reach 65 or older. 

“The benefit that we could possibly see from retaining employees and recruiting employees is a fairly high benefit-to-cost ratio,” Harvill said.

The cost of the benefits package would be $175 a month; however, the employee would have to pay $10 so the cost to the county would be $160 per employee.

After doing a rough estimate, Harvill and County Manager Regina Chambers found that the cost to the county after five years would be $37,000 if everybody who could retire did retire. That’s also using the current insurance rates. 

To be eligible, the employee would need to have a tenure of 10 to 15 years, according to Harvill. For his department, he said, that would be a competitive recruitment tool as many people look to the highway department as a second career later in life. If the benefits package requires a 25-year tenure, many applicants at 45 to 50-years-old would not likely receive them. 

“Y’all offer really good health insurance,” Harvill said. “It’s a great policy. You’re not going to hear many people at the county complain about it. So that’s a big retention and recruiting tool that all of the folks that interview future or possible employees for you look at and emphasize.”

Commission Chairman James Williams asked the commissioners to review and consider the proposal and reach out to Harvill with any questions for the next meeting.