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Logan County Board
County Board updates non-union insurance contributions
[April 16, 2026]
On Wednesday, April 15th, the
Logan County Board held a special regular meeting at 6 p.m. in the
second-floor courtroom of the Logan County Courthouse. Eight of the
twelve board members were present, including Chairman JR Glenn, Vice
Chairman Dale Nelson, Lance Conahan, Michael DeRoss, Hannah
Fitzpatrick, Kevin Knauer, Bob Sanders, and Keenan Leesman. Joseph
Kuhlman, Gil Turner, Kathy Schmidt, and Jim Wessbecher were absent.
This special meeting was held to update a motion that was passed by
the board at the end of March regarding insurance for county
employees. At a
special regular meeting on March 31st, the board voted to change
their contributions to non-union county employee insurance from flat
dollar amounts to percentages. The percentages were 75 percent
across the board, covering all plans (employee only, employee plus
spouse, employee plus children, and family).
After this change was made and passed, it was determined that a 75
percent contribution from the county side would make the employee
contributions much higher than they are now. Considering Alera Group
(the county’s new insurance broker) saved the county a significant
amount of money they had already budgeted for insurance, the board
members did not feel right about making their non-union employees
pay significantly higher out of pocket for their employee only
plans.
This being the case, the item on
the agenda was to change the $1,500 and $3,000 deductible plans to
93 percent county contribution, and to cover 100 percent of the HSA
plan. The 93 percent would put the employees just about what they
are at with the current plan.
There was a lot of discussion over the detail, with Logan County
Treasurer Penny sharing that county departments, such as the Highway
Department overseen by Bret Aukamp, reimburse the county for their
employee’s insurance out of their own budgets. DeRoss wanted to know
if the departments would have enough to cover this, as he argued
that, when they created their budgets for this fiscal year, they
likely did not include a 93 percent contribution to insurance.
Aukamp stated that, for his department, a 93 percent contribution
would actually be lower than what they were reimbursing the county
last year due to the amount of money the county saved with this new
plan.
DeRoss also wanted to know about the union members’ contract. Aukamp
shared that six of his employees are Teamsters, and that their
contract states they must receive at least what all the other county
employees receive, union or non-union. Several more comments were
made by other board members, with the general consensus being that,
should this motion be passed for the non-union employees, when the
union employees negotiate a new contract this year, they would
likely get at least the same level of contribution to their
insurance.
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Leesman wanted to
know what the dollar amounts the county would be paying would be
under this proposed motion. Thomas shared that, for the $3,000
deductible plan, the county would pay $780.49, for the $1,500
plan it would be $822.92, and for the HSA it would be around
$713. Nelson stated that open enrollment for the new plan begins
the day after this meeting, and he wanted to get the motion
passed so the employees would know exactly how much each plan
would cost them.
There was some additional discussion
about why exactly the board was looking to increase contributions to
93 percent. Sanders stated that, since the county was saving money
on insurance this year, that they should not be requiring the
employees to pay more. Conahan stated that he was opposed to a 100
percent contribution for anything above the HSA plan due to it
setting a precedent. He gave an example that, should the insurance
go up significantly next year, as it has in past years, he would not
want to have to break the news of requiring employees to pay for a
portion of their insurance plans again.
Once all discussions were out of the way, a vote was taken. There
were some hesitations in the vote, but in the end, all eight of the
present members voted in favor of the motion.
There was one public comment from Lisa Bobb. She suggested that the
board bring back the Insurance Committee, something they have not
had in several years. She stated that the committee could work for
months in advance on a new insurance plan, getting details worked
out ahead of time rather than rushing to get it done just in time
for open enrollment. She also suggested that employees be involved
in the insurance process.
Nelson responded to Bobb’s comment, stating that this last-minute
rush was not the fault of the board, but rather their previous
insurance broker. According to Nelson, their previous broker would
not get new plan information to the board until the month before
they needed to vote on it, leaving the board with little time to
weigh or look for other options. Additionally, he stated that this
year was spent getting their new insurance broker on board, and that
the Executive and Personnel Committee has been working on insurance.
Bobb responded that she did not think Nelson was understanding her
point, and Glenn tried to speak to her point for a couple of
minutes. With there being no other public comments, the board voted
to adjourn.
[Matt Boutcher]
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