ROSSFORD – City Council last week gave the administration approval to study joining a consortium that
would enable the city to self-fund its health insurance.
The plan would be to work through the Ohio Public Safety Entity Healthcare Cooperative in partnership
with the Jefferson Health Plan.
"Our intent is to allow us to explore that option," City Manager Ed Ciecka said.
While the plan would not result necessarily in savings, he said, it could serve to moderate future
increases in the cost of employee health benefits.
School board member Jackie Brown, who was in the audience, asked about upfront costs to join.
Ciecka said the proposal the city was looking for did not require it to make an upfront payment to the
consortium’s reserve fund.
Instead that is part of its payment, paid over the first three years, he said.
That raised a red flag for Councilman Daniel Wagner.
As president of the Toledo police union he has supported such arrangement, he said, but questioned why
there was no initial contribution required.
He voted no. The resolution passed 6-1.
In other action, the city acquired two parcels of property.
The board approved the purchase of the 7800 Wales Road. The property with a house on just shy of three
acres is adjacent to the city’s public works property. The city will purchase it for $95,000, the price
based on fair market value as determined by an independent appraiser.
The city also was given the property and abandoned home at 213 Bacon St. The property owners had an
outstanding debt to the city’s CHIPS program of $17,000, Ciecka said, and were giving the city the
property to settle that.
The lot is too small to build a new home on, so he’s hoping neighbors will be interested in acquiring the
property.
The acquisition, he said, is part of the city’s initiative to get rid of blighted properties.