CUMBERLAND – According to Cumberland County's administration team, a revenue source for the re-quested one-time two percent bonus, which was denied by the Board of Supervisors last month, has been iden-tified and was recently revisited and approved.

The announcement came after Supervisor Van Petty, District Three, requested that the Board add the item to the called meeting's agenda on Tuesday, November 30 and revisit the issue.

“At the last meeting, this item came up and it was voted down because we were trying to identify the funding source and I talked with County staff and the County Administrator recently and they have seemed to deter-mine a source for the funding that they can pull this money from,” advised Petty.

Assistant County Administrator Jill Matthews explained the identified revenue source.

A year ago in October, the County went self-insured on its health and dental insurance and merged with the school system to create one large group.

“As a result, all of the insurance premiums are deposited…with the County Treasurer and the claims for health and dental are paid directly from that fund,” she identified.

At this point a surplus has been built up in the fund and the current balance, Ms. Matthews said, is just over $500,000.

“Being self-insured at some point you'll build up a surplus to the point where those funds will need to be dispersed,” she advised. “Again, with the over half million dollar balance and that balance has been increasing by a rate of approximately $33,000 per month in surplus…”

At that rate, the County is looking at a total balance at the end of the fiscal year of roughly $781,000.

“It seems to be an appropriate use of those funds as 30 percent of that total balance is deducted directly from employees' pay checks,” she said about the process and the average, which depends on the type of plan each employee participate.

At the end of October, after all premiums were deposited and all claims paid, the balance was roughly $512,000.

The highest claim month, so far, Ms. Matthews noted was $147,000.

“We're depositing premiums at a rate of about $167,000 a month,” she continued. “Even with the withdraw of the $63,000 (requested one-time bonus)…it still leaves a sizeable balance to more than take care of any claims that would arise…”

The two percent amount requested by the County Administrator last month for the bonus for County em-ployees and the Department of Social Services totaled $63,677.70.

“We do keep track because this fund does contain both premiums paid by both County employees and the school employees,” she said about the school system contributing approximately 70 percent of the member-ship.

“As the money is dispersed we had made the agreement that it would be dispersed proportionately,” she told the Board.

By the end of the fiscal year, even with “disastrous claims,” there should be a surplus in that fund sufficient to cover this draw and a proportionate draw for the school and still leave a “large excess,” said Ms. Matthews.

According to the information provided, the County originally set “very conservative premiums” as a safe-guard.

“There is a cap, even though we are self-insured, at some point there is a cap on the amount of claims that we can pay for any individual employee,” she continued about the fund and it ever becoming depleted, which was a question raised by Supervisor Elbert Womack, District Four.

Chairman Tim Kennell, District Two, said that he believes the one-time bonus is a “terrific opportunity to reward county staff and social services for extremely diligent work for the County in the light of the fact that they haven't had an increase in the last two/two and a half years,” he said.

He then made a motion requesting that the Board approve the one-time two percent bonus payment of ap-proximately $63,000 and it was unanimously approved.

In light of speaking out against the bonus request last month, Supervisor Womack said, “Since I was op-posed to this at our last meeting, I still feel like that I would feel more comfortable if I was supporting this and we knew more about what the budget is going to be come next year. But, having the staff find a place where we can come up with this money…and realizing that our employees have taken on extra things due to the cut-backs…and I realize they work hard and I believe I will support it.”

Upcoming Budget

Supervisor Bill Osl, District One, asked Ms. Matthews if there was a preliminary outlook into next year's budget?

“With this surplus, I had no intention of including a reduction in these premiums,” said Ms. Matthews about the health and dental coverage. “This fund will be in the same situation next year. But, overall outlook, I think with some new revenue sources that have been secured, we should be in good shape to easily provide a bal-anced budget to the Board.”

According to Ms. Matthews, the annual contractual payments from Henrico County for the Cobbs Creek Reservoir will help with the County's budget.

The next payment is expected in July 2011, said Supervisor Bobby Oertel, District Five.

“My intention is to present a balanced budget using only funds being received during that particular fiscal year,” noted Ms. Matthews about her budget work, “none of the funds that have been or will be received during this fiscal year.”