Several members of the Murfreesboro City Council during the meeting tonight at the city hall called for a more open and transparent communication concerning changes in insurance packages and other policies.
Council member Ronnie Martin sparked the discussion when he asked City Manager Craig Tindall for an update on the retirees’ medical pension. Martin said current retirees have been calling him about their plans changing, but he wasn’t able to give them a proper answer because Tindall failed to communicate such changes.
“The committee met this week and we did change the plan for clarification purposes to make it clear that the city is now administering the plan and not the electric department,” said Tindall.
Tindall also said that his team is working hard to make sure that plans won’t change until the end of the year.
Just like Martin, Council member Kirt Wade and Vice Mayor Madelyn Scales Harris have been getting calls about retirees’ insurance policies changing. Both weren’t able to give proper answers to their constituents because they don’t know what’s going on either.
“All of them are telling me that they’ve already been told that they’ve lost their life insurance and they need to get out and get another life insurance. Is that correct?” said Harris to Tindall.
Tindall said a letter went out saying that they’re looking at it and he believed nothing has changed.
Council member Eddie Smotherman brought up a concern among EMS employees. He said there’s a huge discrepancy in the response time between the EMS services and the city council.
“We need to do a better job at conveying the process that we’re going through and how we’re doing it because currently, we got employees working for us that we’re scaring to death,” Smotherman said.
Mayor Shane McFarland said that they can’t discuss anything until proposals have been vetted in. Tindall agreed and said that they are still in the process of gathering information and evaluating policies.
In other matters, the city council:
· Approved an amendment to the city code regarding the discharge of firearms
· Approved the expansion of scope of services of the fire rescue team
· Approved an amendment to the city’s employee compensation policy
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