Adamsville mayor says personnel absences caused late insurance ...

ADAMSVILLE, Alabama -- A recent lapse in Adamsville's payments for employees' health insurance was an oversight because of an employee who is on leave after a death in her family and several city hall employees being out with the flu, Mayor Pam Palmer said Monday night.

Last week, Adamsville employees received a letter from the Alabama State Employees Insurance Board informing them that the city had not paid for their health insurance for the last three months of 2012 and that their insurance was being cancelled retroactively. ?

The city subsequently sent employees a memo telling them not to panic and that the city would pay the health insurance costs. That memo, issued by city clerk and human resources director Susan Gilmore, attributed the late payments to a downturn in the economy.

On Monday, Palmer said that the city had made the payment that day to the state. She said that the missed payments were due to numerous reasons, including that the city revenue officer had been out for at least two months after a death in her family.

"The revenues coming in were not being handled properly," she said. "There was a lack of people to do it. Everybody else has been out for at least a week at a time with the flu, me included for two weeks."

The city clerk, Gilmore, further attributed the latency to a downturn in revenues and said the city had seen a slump after a Fred's store had closed in the city.

"I think people are just not spending money the way they usually are, and [that] affects your overall revenue totals for your sales receipts," she said.

During the council meeting, Council President Anthony Brooklere read the balances in the city's accounts. The city's general fund, its main account, has $221,917.15, he said.?

Other accounts were not as flush. The city's two gasoline funds had a combined $131.39. The capital improvement fund had $32.39, and the senior center fund had $337.96.

In other business, the mayor gave a first reading of a new city ordinance that would require city council approval before department heads could fill any vacancies. The ordinance must be read in two meetings before the council can approve it.?

Jesse Chambers contributed reporting for this article.?

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Source: http://blog.al.com/spotnews/2013/01/adamsville_mayor_says_personne.html

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