The Brown County Council and Brown County Commissioners have given the OK to allow for a new pension option for county employees that could save the county money.
At the Sept. 16 meeting, the council voted unanimously to add the Public Employees’ Retirement Fund My Choice option to the salary ordinance.
The county already participated in the PERF Hybrid program, which meant the county contributed an 11.2 percent match to the fund. Employees have to work for 10 years before they are able to be vested under the Hybrid plan.
Under the My Choice plan, the county would pay a 4.2 percent match, but county employees would be vested in five years and elected officials would be vested in four.
“If they leave after five years, then they can take it with them somewhere else,” commissioner Diana Biddle said.
Employees would contribute 3 percent of their gross wages under both plans.
Biddle said that if the 20 new county employees had had the option to pick the My Choice plan, the county could have potentially saved $40,000 by only contributing 4.2 percent to their PERF.
The new option would be available to all future new employees. The My Choice plan would also be open to all elected officials.
Councilman Darren Byrd asked if there were any down sides to adding the additional PERF option. “Nothing for you. It’s a choice of investment,” Biddle said.
She said that the county loses employees to neighboring counties who pay better and that being able to be vested in PERF after five years might help keep employees here.
“What’s happening to us right now is we’re losing people after three years. But if we can say, ‘Hey, in another 18 months, you’ll be vested in your PERF My Choice,’ then maybe we can get some longevity out of those people where they will stay longer,” Biddle said.
The new option will not affect merit deputies with the Brown County Sheriff’s Department.
Biddle said the county has about six new employees who have come on in the last couple of weeks and those employees still have 60 days to determine which PERF plan they want.
“It’s kind of a carrot, because if they take this plan, they are not going to be receiving as much in their pension, but they will be able to be vested in five years, which means they can leave here in five years and retire at their retirement age and still have a retirement to live off of. Probably not a wage living at that point, but they will have a retirement,” county human resources coordinator Melissa Stinson said at the Sept. 19 commissioners meeting.
The commissioners unanimously approved a resolution to the PERF plan to allow for the My Choice plan option. Elected county council and commissioners will now be able to select this option in the future, too.
Resident Chris Ross asked if this new option will ultimately cost the county more money since more people are now eligible for it. “It could cost us a little more if they choose to do it,” Stinson said.
Biddle said some of the elected officials may not choose to do it.
“This is mainly for new employees. This is also based on your income. To be quite honest with you, councilmen and the commissioners, with the income you make, it will not make that large of an impact,” Stinson added.
Highway leader gives paving, bridge work updates
Brown County Highway Superintendent Mike Magner reported at the Sept. 19 Brown County Commissioners meeting that new pavement was finished on Bellsville Pike and Nineveh Road.
Shoulder work and striping were being finished on both roads late last month. The paving was covered by Community Crossings grant funding.
Greasy Creek Road will also be paved this year using grant money.
Magner said complaints began coming in about speeding on Nineveh Road after paving was finished. That road now has a 25 MPH speed limit that can result in a ticket if violated.
While working on Bellsville Pike, Magner said he used local funding to also pave three-tenths of a mile of Whitehorse Road near the county line. “We got a better price because they already had their equipment there,” he said.
Magner said if crews get a chance before the end of fall, they will pave about a mile of Becks Grove Road with local funds. If it’s not done this fall, it will be in next year’s paving plans, he said.
During his report to commissioners, Magner reported losing two staff members from his department. One left to make more money for a contractor and another moved to be closer to family. He said another employee will also soon be eligible to retire. “Right now we can cover 10 of our 12 snow routes. … It’s going to be tight until we can find more help,” he said.
He said that Bartholomew County’s highway department is also looking to replace six employees who will be eligible to retire. That county pays more, which could make it more difficult to attract new highway department employees here. “It’s hard to compete with them when they are right across the county line, but we’ll do what we can,” he said.
Magner also reported that work would soon begin on rebuilding the bridge on Gold Point Road. The bridge was closed late last year after failing an inspection and the hope was to have it replaced by the start of school in August. Magner said crews would be working on replacing a pipe on Greasy Creek Road within the next few weeks and that the Gold Point Road bridge would be “next in line.”
“That one we got caught by surprise on it because we had to do an emergency closure when we did the inspection. By the time we looked at a pro-fits and a couple of different options of sizing it, we were hoping to have it replaced before school started, but several of our options just didn’t fit the site right or they were too expensive,” he said.
Commissioner Diana Biddle asked Magner to send up an update to Brown County Schools since the closure affected their bus route in that area.
Magner said that a bus driver had been driving over the bridge before its closure that was over the 3-ton limit. “They were not supposed to be crossing it to start with, so she was going across it partially loaded when she should not have been,” he said.
“They should have never had anyone on the bus. It’s posted at 3 tons, but it also has an operating rating, which will carry overload. The overload took care of it. It’s a short span, so you can’t get both axles of the bus on it at same time. It survived, but it was to the point where the beams were basically rusted out and gone.”
Magner said the closure was done because the bridge could no longer carry 3 tons.
