In Brief: Novi Adjusts Health Care Costs, Updates Development Manual

The City Council approved five action items at its meeting Monday. In addition to adjusting its 2011-12 budget and creating a policy that offers special reserve fund balance guidelines, here are some other actions it took:

Government Employees to Pay 20 Percent Toward Health Care

The council voted 6-1 to adopt an 80/20 cost-sharing model for Novi government employees' health care. This means that the city will pay only up to 80 percent of an employee's total health care costs, with the employee paying the other 20 percent. This includes all annual health care costs including copays and payments into health savings accounts.

The city adopted the model in accordance with a bill that is awaiting signing by Gov. Rick Snyder. Communities were also given the options of implementing hard caps for health care, opting out until next year or ignoring the legislation. Although the bill is not yet law, the council chose to adopt a model so the city can prepare for its health care open enrollment in November. If the bill does not become law, the council's action will become null and void.

"It's just another way for the city to save money and ultimately save positions, save jobs," said Mayor Pro-Tem Bob Gatt.

The 80/20 model will not apply to employees currently under collective bargaining units until their current contracts expire. Nearly 148 employees will begin the new requirements by Jan. 1. It is estimated that this will save the city $400,000 in health care premium costs, according to the council action item.

Member Andrew Mutch voted against the model, favoring the hard-cap option instead.

"There are no easy answers to this; the state laid out a mandate that we have to follow," Mutch said. "I know the hard-cap option isn't perfect either, but I think the hard-cap option at least puts everybody on the same playing field and its an equitable amount—everyone is getting the same amount contributed toward health care, whereas with what we're proposing tonight…some people are going to do better on this 80/20 system than others."

Member David Staudt said the 80/20 model was the best of the choices.

"At the end of the day, this 80/20 cap is what most taxpayers want who are not employed by government," he said. "There has been a large gap between what we're paying as private individuals and what state employees, local employees and government employees in general."

SWOCC Executive Director Removal OK'd

In a vote of 4-3, with Gatt, Staudt and Mutch voting against, the City Council approved Southwestern Oakland Cable Commission's (SWOCC) . SWOCC Studios produces government programs for the city of Novi and provides facilities for public access cable users.

Site Plan and Development Manual to Be Updated

The City Council reviewed a first reading of an update to Novi's Site Plan and Development Manual, which provides an overview of Novi's development review standards and application submissions.

The manual will be updated to include the following:

• Hyperlinks to additional information on the Web
• The addition of a section about the planned rezoning overlay review process
• Updates to Planning Division applications to reflect current processes
• The elimination of the subdivision review process in an effort to streamline the manual

The manual was last updated in 1999.

Street Renaming Policy Denied

Member Justin Fischer asked council members to discuss if they should create a policy that states criteria for renaming city streets after notable citizens, but it was defeated in a vote of 3-4.

The council recently approved the , Lee BeGole.