Filing Date Set for April Trustee Election
Filing dates for the April 5, 2016, East Central College board of trustees election have been set. Filing will open on Tuesday, December 15, at 8 a.m. and close at 5 p.m. on Tuesday, January 19.
The terms of Jim Perry and Tom Dill from sub-district three expire next April. College trustees are elected to six-year terms.
Sub-district three includes all of the Washington School District, excluding that portion located in Boeuf and Lyon Townships.
The ECC board consists of six trustees, two each from three sub-districts of the college district. Trustees are elected at large, but a candidate must be a resident of the sub-district he or she represents.
Perry, current board president, is completing his third term on the East Central College board. He was first elected in 1998 and was re-elected in 2004and 2010. He served as board vice president for four years beginning in 2002 and has been president of the board since 2006.
Dill is completing his second term since first being elected in 2004. He is the current board secretary, a position he has held since 2011.
Declaration of candidacy forms must be filed in the President’s Office located in Room 254 in Buescher Hall on the ECC campus in Union, weekdays between 8 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. Filings will not be accepted during the holiday break which starts at 4:30 p.m. on Wednesday, December 23. Filing will resume Monday, January 4, at 8 a.m. No filings will be accepted on Monday, January 18, when the college will be closed to observe the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday.
A candidate for the ECC board must be a citizen of the United States, at least 21 years of age, a voter of the college district for at least one full year preceding the election date, and a current resident of the sub-district for which he or she files. The board of trustees is the sole statutory legislative governing body responsible for the control and operation of East Central College. Neither state statutes nor district policy limits the number of terms a member may serve. Regular monthly meetings of the ECC board are normally held on the first Monday of the month.
Other trustees include Ann Hartley – Union, board vice president; Prudence Fink Johnson – Union, board treasurer; Don Kappelmann – New Haven, member; and Dr. Joe Stroetker – Sullivan, member.
Insurance Coverage for 2016 Approved by College Trustees
Health insurance for full-time East Central College employees will be provided by the same carrier in 2016 with no change in rates or plan design. College trustees approved the renewal of coverage with Anthem at their November 2 meeting.
“Anthem’s original renewal included a proposed 13.6 percent increase,” stated Scott James with J.W. Terrill, insurance broker for the college. “We negotiated for no increase or plan changes to the Anthem medical insurance premium by moving basic life/accidental death and dismemberment/long-term disability coverage from Guardian to Anthem,” James noted that the change will result in annual premiums approximately $5,700 lower than Guardian’s proposed renewal for basic life/AD & D and long-term disability.
ECC employees will continue to have a choice between BJC and non-BJC networks, an option to purchase dependent coverage, as well as an option to select the high deductible plan that includes a health savings account.
“The college will fund the HSA for a maximum of $2,000 annually for employees selecting the HSA option rather than funding the difference between the base plan and high deductible plan premiums,” said Wendy Hartmann, ECC’s director of human resources. “ECC will continue to purchase a health reimbursement account as part of the plans.”
The health reimbursement account allows the college to pay the difference between the deductible required by the plan and the deductible amount paid out-of-pocket by employees.
Total cost to the college for employee medical insurance in 2016 will total over $1.5 million.
Vision insurance will again be provided through VSP with no change in the rate of $6.04 per employee each month.
The College pays the vision insurance premium for all full-time employees, with employees able to add spouse and/or children at an additional cost.
The group Medicare Part C plan offered to ECC retirees will continue with United Healthcare Medicare Advantage PPO. The plan involves no premium for either the college or the individual.