Recommendation to authorize City Manager to execute the renewal of contracts with Anthem Blue Cross, the City’s Third Party Administrator for the Preferred Provider Organization (PPO) and the Health Maintenance Organization (HMO) group health plans and Medicare Supplement plan; United Healthcare Medicare Advantage Plan; Scan Health Plan for the Medicare Advantage Plan; Delta Dental for the fee-for-service dental plan (DPPO); Medical Eye Services (MES) for the vision plan; CVS Caremark as the Prescription Benefit Manager (PBM) for the Prescription Drug Plan; The Standard Insurance Company for life insurance and long-term and short-term disability; and Union Mutual Life Insurance Company (UNUM) through Larry Lambert & Associates Insurance Services for long-term care insurance; and any subsequent amendments necessary to maintain current benefit levels and remain in compliance with state and federal laws on all plans.  (Citywide)
Thank you. Next item, please. Item 12 Report from Human Resources Recommendation to execute the renewal of eight contracts for health, dental, vision, prescription and disability to maintain current benefit levels and remain in compliance with state and federal laws on all plans citywide. Thank you. There's a motion in a second. Is attorney any public comment on 12? Councilman Mongo. Thank you. This item is really important. A year ago, when I brought it to the attention of the council that we were experiencing a $4.2 million increase in our annual benefit costs, I think that we forget how prudent we've been, and I appreciate the meetings that I've had with the city staff to really get a grasp and understanding on what this means. I think it's important to recognize that since 2013, our medical costs have increased by $13.9 million. What does that mean to a city employee? What that means is that the city has absorbed almost 20 $700 per employee. And when you compare that to the average civilian salary of the employees of the city of Long Beach, that's nearly a 4% increase over the last three years. And so I know these are tough, tough, tough times. And we are working really hard with our employee groups to ensure that we can be the employer of choice of all cities. And we want to create a positive work environment and good paying jobs and also. Take into consideration the millions of dollars that we as a city continue to absorb year after year, because this 20 $700, while it does not show up in your paycheck, it is an additional cost that we as a city have had to incur. I want to thank the Human Resources Department and the work that they've done in the benefits management. There are many other large cities and smaller cities that have experienced larger increases than we're talking about today. Thank you to the employees of the city of Long Beach who are staying healthy and active and going out of their way to make efforts to improve their health. Because the partnership that you're doing in being healthy is a really important component of our ability to keep these costs under control. And I don't know about you, but I'd love to have an additional 20 $700 check every three years, and we aren't able to do that. Instead, we're absorbing these costs, and it doesn't seem like we're able to increase wages every year. But this is an important component. And our health has been our health care has been a big part of what makes this employer a great employer. So thank you very much to the city staff, the new benefits coordinator. Welcome. Our new H.R. manager. I'm sure you'll learn how much I care about this item as much as our previous H.R. manager. I keep a tight look on these costs. They can skyrocket up, as we've seen in the past, over 10% increases in a single year. So we need to work on that. Is there anything else that, ah, our H.R. team would like to add or the city manager. Alex, Michelle, anything? No other than. We'll certainly take your comments to heart. And it's certainly. Something that we'll look into for the following year. Thank you so much appreciation to all our city employees who are helping stay healthy and keep our costs low. Thank you. See? No public comment on the item. Members, please go and cast your vote. Councilman Andrews. Motion carries.