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Regular City Council Meeting Monday, September 26, 2011 Page 11 effort to reduce costs currently being expended. Ms. Bacon noted that there were no additional funds being requested for the Wellness Program; and that this would be a net savings to the City over current expenditures. Councilmember Pust recognized that; however, she noted that it still represented an additional benefit to the employees, and while that may be great, the City Council's budget considerations and discussions needed to take into consider the broader scope, such as whether or not a neighborhood hockey rink needed to be closed due to lack of funds; and whether savings from the employee benefit pro- gram needed to be reallocated accordingly. At the request of Councilmember McGehee, Ms. Bacon advised that depending on the amount of detail being requested by the City Council for additional infor- mation and comparables, and the time-consuming nature of a detailed benefit package comparison that would determine what additional information could be available for the City Council by their October 10, 2011 meeting. Councilmember McGehee opined that the real discussion was related to an overall $100,000 savings based on staff initiatives on keeping themselves healthy; with the $18,000 saved through negotiations but retaining the same employee benefits as last year. Mayor Roe clarified that staff had negotiated a lower cost with employees for the same coverage. Ms. Bacon concurred, noting that coverage wouldn't change benefits at all; but that the extra $10.00 per month would go into the benefit package; leaving the expenditure flat for the employee health insurance package. If the City Council determined that the $18,000 should be allocated to other uses; Ms. Bacon advised that staff benefits would remain as is, with staff continuing to receive $25.00 monthly as their wellness incentive rather than the proposed $35.00. Councilmember McGehee spoke in support of the additional wellness incentive as a reward for employees working on improving their health and lifestyle choices. Councilmember Johnson requested that the additional information from staff in- clude ratios for single coverage, and family coverage in various tiers for the entire health insurance package and for comparables, not just the cafeteria portion, with the intent to determine if the City was within the ballpark with other communities in their overall employee benefit package. Ms. Bacon responded that this would not be possible within this timeframe. She also noted no other city has our exact package.