Common Council - Regular Meeting

Call to order the special common council meeting May 28, 2026.

Stand for this.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Roll call. Alderman Quistomars. Here. Alderman Holliday.

Here.

Alderman Collins. Here. Alderman Carpenter.

Here.

Alderman Marticello.

Here.

All right. Motion to adopt the agenda. I'd like to make a motion to adopt the agenda with one resolution and two consents.

Yes, yes.

Oh, sorry.

That's all right. Alderman Quistomars. Aye. Alderman Holliday.

Aye.

Alderman Collins. Alderman Carpenter. Alderman Marnicello. We don't have any proclamations, communications, and specifications. We have a presentation, so this is Chad from MVP, and he comes to the podium.

Thank you. I'm from Gallagher Benefits and Services, so I'm the broker for the City of Amsterdam. MVP is the current health insurance carrier, and I want to talk about from a coverage standpoint, we have recommended implementation of a new funding method that does not change the coverage level for members. So it brings it back to the same end result as it is today, but it's just a change in the funding method to the health plan. And we've discussed at length if any claims matters pop up, or members have any issues whatsoever with any confusion on when to pay for something, if they should owe any funds, that they should definitely engage ENZO at the city, as well as Gallagher, to make sure that they're achieving that same end result that they achieved today from a coverage level standpoint. And I want to take any questions related to that concept.

So when you say, speaking with Enzo, when people, now what you're looking at overall, I think, is you're going to be paying out of pocket. Well, I guess you haven't really summarized it for us, but my understanding is that basically they're having these HRA accounts that would pay for certain So are people's co-pays in the office going to be different and then reimbursed if you're talking about like $100 co-pay for something that their plan should be like a $20 co-pay for?

So to answer your question, there are services that take a co-pay today.

Yes.

Right? For those services, that's a no-change situation. Okay? What we did is we applied this concept to certain services that take $0 co-pay today. Right. So that's why it's really a no change because the copay situation is the same for those that have a copay today for those services. This funding concept was for only select services that don't have a copay. And it's basically the city funding.

So like surgeries and.

Yes, surgeries is an example. That's right. I have my I left it over here and I have my little cheat sheet. Surgery was an example. Right. Or diagnostic testing. Emergency room, inpatient hospital, some of the more major medical services would fall in this category. And again, the key is this is a plan that it has to process through the plan for this to work as intended. So that's why we're saying if anyone's being asked for money that's unexpected, that they shouldn't be in that situation with their provider. The claim needs to go through to MVP for this to work properly. So Enzo at the city has volunteered to help with that process. He actually helps with that process today for members when this instance occurs. So we want that process to remain absolutely consistent. And then with us being the city's broker, of course, from a service standpoint, we're always here to make things easier with the carrier and make sure THINGS ARE WORKING AS THE PLANS ATTEND.

WHAT WAS OUR TOTAL PREMIUM BEFORE WE PRESENTED THIS PLAN? YOU KNOW?

TOTAL PREMIUM INCURRENCY?

YEAH, LIKE RIGHT NOW, WHAT IS OUR PREMIUM, YOU KNOW? I'LL MAKE IT EASIER. WHAT'S THE TOTAL PREMIUM WITH THIS NEW PLAN? ON THE OLD PLAN AND THE NEW PLAN? IS IT A SAVINGS?

The old plan and the new plan.

I know what we have right now.

Yep.

Okay. Okay. So we're paying X amount of money right now. Okay. You're the broker. So now we're going to go with this plan. Did our premium go up or down?

So we negotiate the renewal percentage with MVP. Which was an eight and a half percent. It's like 8.9. 8.9. All right. Yep. So we negotiate that with MVP. Right. With this concept, we get what is the differential for this concept, baseline with MVP, right? But then the city is funded, right? So what we do is we do the math on the total liability for what it could cost the city to fund that risk, right? So it's a sum of two parts situation. in this new environment, okay? So in the new environment, we believe it is the most efficient method for the city moving forward. And the goal, because we've talked a lot in our task force meetings about health insurance trends and how it isn't sustainable. So the goal with this is to operate more efficiently. And if a surplus is to be obtained, for that to factor into future rules.

In the future.

But right now, we just did a budget. That's right. Okay. We stay the budget because this is, we keep saying this in our meetings, it's unrealized savings, right? Because we try to be conservative because it's year one. We want to set everybody up for success in how we're projecting this, right? So it's unrealized savings. And then once we have the data, we can determine how we can assist both the city and the employees of the city.

Now, if all the members, let's say all the members hypothetically, were to use all the deductibles, okay, what would that cost the city?

If everyone uses all the deductibles. So we were projecting, we did some different... My question is, okay, what did you project? What did we project? So we were projecting... Somewhere around 65% to 70% of total liability, right? Yeah. Again, for the sake of trying to give you accurate answers, I just don't have that figure in front of me. Let's say 65%. Yeah, that's our estimate. Okay, your estimate.

So, will we be saving money or losing money? What's the break-even number that we're looking for? Like, you don't want to go any higher than this because then we're going to start losing money. Are you saying 65%?

I'm saying that's what we see from other groups as a projection. I'm not calling that the break-even line or anything like that. I would have to dig into that because I'm not going to be able to give you the exact number right now.

Did you go by a client's release?

I think. What we determined is if everybody met their deductibles, the worst case scenario would be an extra $16,000 cost to the city. Okay, you answer my question. Yeah.

Can you just answer my question? As opposed to in the past when it was an extra like half a million, $600,000 to the city. Yeah. When that used to happen when we were self-funded.

Mm-hmm. Yeah, and that was a much different situation. Because you had much more exposure. Sure, sure. This is much more limited exposure only on those certain services. And if everybody maxed out like we said.

So I'll go back to my original question. What was our total premium now as compared to what we're going to do? Is it costing us more or is it costing us less?

I'm saying that's 8.9% more, right? It's 8.9% more based on the budget.

And we got, what, $7 million? How much is the insurance?

The medical insurance? It's like $3 million or so.

$3 million.

Yeah, because I'm thinking of the total figure, which has pharmacies. So that's about $240,000 that's going to go up.

8.9%. 9% of, yeah, it's about $200,000.

So it's actually, it is better than trends that I'm seeing in the market. Trends in the market are regularly 12 to 13% on average. So 8.9, given how you guys were running, we did view that as favorable. And remember, everything we're talking about today, medical side, right? Even this funding mechanism is medical side. All in, when we do the budget, We're looking at something like 6.3 when we factor in how the pharmacy is running. So in total, which is what the budget rates are based off of, when we factor in the pharmacy, we're beating the 8.9. But the 8.9 is the medical level.

Thank you for your answers.

Yes, sir. I appreciate it. You got it.

Is anyone here in the meetings? Just Louise or the task force? Yeah. Yeah. So how is it being received by the employees?

I thought it was pretty favorable, I thought, the responses.

How many task force meetings have we had since accepting Gallagher as our broker?

Three or four. Four.

Four, maybe. And how many employees are represented in there? How many people are on this task force that are employees? Because when this was originally brought to our attention, It was supposed to be made up of a certain number of just regular employees that had input.

Yeah, we have two to three employees from each bargaining unit. I mean, obviously not everyone can attend every meeting, but the turnout has been pretty good. I would say 15 employees probably at each meeting.

Yeah, around 12, 15.

So we're just saying the union accepts.

so so far there hasn't been pushback yeah it because it meets the which we stated in the meeting plainly the at the as good equal to or better language this means that all right i don't have any questions which is our focus for for groups like city of amsterdam any other questions thank you thank you thank you

Resolution number 2526-205, resolution approving 2026-2027 operating budget by full council.

WHEREAS A PUBLIC HEARING WAS HELD ON TUESDAY, MAY 12, 2026 REGARDING THE 2026-2027 CITY OF AMSTERDAM OPERATING BUDGET AS SUBMITTED . AND WHEREAS THE COMMON COUNCIL HAS MET AND CONSIDERED VARIOUS ESTIMATES OF REVENUES AND APPROPRIATIONS CONTAINED HEREIN, and whereas the Common Council desires to make various modifications to the Mayor's proposed operating budget, now therefore be it resolved that pursuant to the City Charger Section C-118, the Common Council hereby adopts operating budget as submitted by Mayor Cinquanti with modifications specified in the attached document and the same is hereby filed with the City Clerk and the City Clerk is directed to present the same to the Mayor for consideration prior to June 1st, 2026. Be it further resolved, the 2026-27 operating budget is adopted with no increase to the tax rate and a 3% increase to user fees, water, sewer, and sanitation. 2026-2027, budget modifications proposed by the Common Council. General fund revenue, increase the appropriated fund balance from $1,755,000 to $2,042,000. Eliminate the $50,000 in non-resident re-levy revenue. General fund expenses increase SPCA contribution by $7,000. Increase venture fund transfer to the Gulf Fund by $230,000. Water fund revenue, no changes. $500, add $15,000 for diesel fuel. Sewer revenue, no changes. Sewer expenses, decrease vehicle repair by $6,000, increase replacement parts by $6,000. Sanitation revenue, no changes. Sanitation expenses, no changes. Golf revenue, add $20,000 in golf concessionaire utility revenue. Increase inter-fund transfer revenue from general fund by $230,000. Golf expenses, add $250,000 to equipment and capital outlay. Any discussion? Any discussion? Alderwoman Collins. Aye. Alderman Carpenter. Aye. Alderman Marticello.

Aye.

Alderwoman Quistamars. Aye. Alderman Holiday.

Aye. Thank you, Alicia.

Resolution number 2526-206, consent. Resolution authorizing execution of agreements with MPP Healthcare for Healthcare Insurance and Healthcare Spending Account Administrative Services for the period July 1st, 2026 through June 30th of 2027 by Alderman Holiday. whereas the city currently provides health care insurance benefits to employees through MVP insurance, and whereas, upon recommendation by the city's health care insurance broker, Gallagher Benefit Services, Inc., and the city controller, the city of Amsterdam desires to enter into a renewal of services for health care insurance benefits with MVP health care for the period covering July 1, 2026 through June 30, 2027. So moved.

I wanted to stop you earlier. Sorry about that. Any questions?

Alderman Holliday.

Aye.

Alderman Collins. Aye. Alderman Carpenter. Aye. Alderman Marticello.

Aye.

Alderman Quistomars. Aye. Resolution 2526-207 consent. Resolution 2025-26 budget transfer recreation motor by Alderman Holliday.

Just read the first four as.

Whereas the Recreation Department is in critical need of a new zero-turn lawnmower due to a recent mechanical failure of an existing mower that our mechanic has determined is too cost prohibitive to repair.

You know, I apologize if you could read the second one just so we have the cost in there too. That'd be nice.

Sure, you want me to read where the... You know what, just read the whole thing. All right.

Yeah, go ahead. I'll just sit back and enjoy.

All right. Thank you. A replacement mower is available to purchase from United Ag and Turf through a New York State OGS contract at the cost of $12,514.04. United Ag and Turf has agreed to accept two unusable city-owned John Deere mowers as trades for a combined trade-in value of $3,210. Net cost to purchase new mower is $9,304.04, whereas available for recreation activities line to cover the cost of the mower. Resolved, the controller is authorized to make the following 2025-26 budget transfer. Decreased expense, recreation activities, $9,304.04. Increased expense, recreation equipment, $9,304.04. So moved. Any questions?

Okay, call the roll, please.

Alderman Holiday.

Aye.

Alderwoman Collins.

Aye.

Alderman Carpenter.

Aye.

Alderman Marticello. Aye. Alderwoman Cuesta-Marx. Aye. Motion to adjourn. Call the roll. Alderwoman Cuesta-Marx. Aye. Alderman Holiday. Aye. Alderwoman Collins. Aye. Alderman Carpenter. Aye. Alderman Marticello. Aye. Thank you, Chad.