COLDWATER, MI (WTVB) – Branch County Commissioners decided during their work session on Thursday to form a five person committee made up of county employees to look into concerns about increases in insurance premiums that have been raised by the Sheriff’s Department and members of the Branch County District Court.
County Administrator Bud Norman said district court officials are worried they will lose employees over the insurance cost issues.
According to Norman, there are other areas with increased activity.
Commission Chair Tim Stoll agreed with District Court Judge Brent Weigle that a committee should be formed.
Members of the Branch County Sheriff’s Department told County Commissioners in December that the 2022 health insurance plan for county employees would cause their premiums to go up for the next year.
While the salaries are going up for union sergeants, it was pointed out by Sgt. Mike Gatke that they would have less take home pay because of the new insurance costs. Scott Jaye from the union representing road patrol and corrections officers said his insurance would go up by nearly $4,800 in 2022.
I am a corrections deputy at the jail. My insurance premium that the county whithholds from my pay more than doubled to 999 per month, 12,000 per year, 30% of my gross pay. Even if they fix the insurance costs we still will struggle to draw new employees to the jail with a starting wage near 16$ an hour. Our tier 2 employees currently top out at 18.81 and it takes four years to get there. I am tier 1 and make 22.54. There is no other solution but to raise wages and improve benefits. If they did away with 2 tier pay, the starting wage would be approximately 18.50, and in 4 years they would be at 22.54. We could hire new people under those circumstances. Instead they are paying us hundreds of hours of overtime per month, wasting money that could be spent on new employees, and of course all of that overtime will eventually lead to burnout, health problems, and losing employees. We need the public’s help, we cannot strike, we have no leverage in this apart from the support of the public.