County staff changes course

By NEVIN BATIWALLA The Brunswick News

Glynn County administrators, who had said they could save money by eliminating a broker for a certain type of insurance, have softened that position to allow brokered proposals to compete for the county's business.

The county commission finance committee is to consider today a plan under which competitive bids will be received either directly from insurance carriers or brokers to sell stop-loss coverage to the county.

The change in direction came out of a formal finance committee meeting Monday after two commissioners had sought a meeting among themselves, administrators and representatives of the broker that has held the contract to bring insurance proposals to the county.

County staff members had recommended at a finance committee meeting Oct. 27 that the county deal directly with Cigna, a health insurance provider, for stop-loss coverage, a level of insurance employees never deal with, instead of using a broker and paying a commission on the value of the policy.

At that meeting, commissioners Tony Thaw and Don Hogan, both of whom acknowledge having personal and campaign ties to the St. Simons Island-based McGinty-Gordon insurance broker that has presented insurance options to the county, called for a meeting between county officials and representatives of the company.

Monday's meeting was initially intended to be for only a few commissioners, McGinty-Gordon representatives and county staff, but had to be held in public when enough commissioners to constitute a quorum said last week they planned to attend.

There was a consensus - but not a formal vote - in the Monday meeting that it would be best to place the stop-loss policy out for sealed bids, said Candice Temple, county spokesperson. That way, she said, the county will have to go with the lowest bid.

Today the finance committee is to vote on whether or not to put coverage out to bids, either from insurance carriers representing themselves without a middleman broker, or brokers representing insurers. The county will need to work expeditiously because the current policy expires at the first of next year.

Going into Monday's special meeting about whether the county should use a broker or go with the initial staff's suggestion and deal directly with the health insurance provider, county commissioners said they had two central questions: What benefit to the county does the broker provide and can the county staff handle the insurance without a middleman?

Representatives of McGinty-Gordon attempted to answer the benefit question with a presentation of the broker's role and an explanation on how the "added-value service" the broker provides saves the county hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Fred McGinty, chief executive of McGinty-Gordon, said the company has been paid an average of more than $43,000 a year over the past five years for the policy and changes it had brought the county, but that the savings the county gets far exceeds that.

Commissioner Amy Callaway said she was impressed by the presentation.

"I learned in the meeting that the broker saved us a lot of money," she said. "Based on what I learned today, I don't think that county staff, as it is now, can handle what McGinty-Gordon does for the county."

Other commissioners echoed Callway, saying that McGinty-Gordon representatives were informative and helpful in explaining the situation, but they said the second question - why was staff recommending cutting out the broker - was never addressed.

"Hats off to Mcginty-Gordon, but what got this whole thing together was the fact that staff said we don't need their administrative duties because we can save that money and do this ourselves," said Commissioner Bob Coleman, an insurance agent who doesn't compete with McGinty-Gordon. "I didn't think staff had adequate response time and were not as prepared as McGinty-Gordon.

"We need to challenge staff to show us what they can do. They need to have a presentation just like McGinty-Gordon did. They worked hard on that. I give them full credit, but it was all just tooting their horn."

After the meeting, Commissioner Tom Sublett said he thought that the county staff could handle working directly with an insurance company, such as Cigna, without a middleman.

"The McGinty-Gordon guys kind of said the same thing: that Cigna is a first-rate company that provides first-rate service," Sublett said. "In my mind, they affirmed it and supported it."

The finance committee will meet at 4 p.m. today in the third floor conference room of the Harold Pate Building, 1225 Reynolds St., downtown. Commissioners Thaw, Hogan and Sublett serve on the committee.

Any recommendation made by the finance committee have to be acted on by the full commission.