State-Journal.com - FPB director wants members to decline health insurance

A newly reappointed director of the Frankfort Plant Board is criticizing the policy to allow its members to qualify for health insurance through the utility’s plan – at a monthly cost of up to $1,200 each.

Director Clyde Baldwin, appointed in October, said board members who have health insurance available through other sources, such as full-time employers, spouses or government programs, should not elect coverage through the plant board.

“They should be able to utilize their own health insurance without tapping into the citizens who are paying the rates for the plant board,” Baldwin said.

Health insurance for plant board directors is $474 for single coverage, $890 for employee and spouse, $807 for employee and children and $1,224 for a family plan, according to information provided by the Plant Board in response to an Open Records request.

“That’s a lot of money for one person to serve on the plant board,” Baldwin said.

According to information provided to The State Journal through the Open Records law, board members Sheila Burton, Ann Wingrove and Michael Dudgeon have plant board insurance for themselves and their children. Board member Bennie Maffett has insurance for himself and his wife.

Board chairman Joe Smith had family coverage until his term expired in September.

Baldwin said the plant board does not insure him because he has access to insurance through Medicare and the state retirement plan.

He previously served on the plant board until 2003 and at that time he elected to have supplemental dental coverage through the plant board and continued to receive his health insurance through the state employee plan. Baldwin was then an engineer in the Kentucky Division of Water.

Wingrove said the directors have been considered employees and have qualified for insurance since 1992.

Burton was appointed in 1998, Dudgeon was appointed in 2002 and Wingrove and Maffett joined in 2003.

The board members were unaware they qualified for insurance through the plant board until after they were appointed, Wingrove said.

“That wasn’t part of our decision to serve,” she said.

In a joint statement, Wingrove, Maffett, Dudgeon and Burton said they elected to participate in the plant board insurance plan for “various personal reasons.”

In her case, Wingrove said the plan covered more than the plan she had access to as the spouse of a state employee.

She also said all had access to health insurance before being appointed to the board. Dudgeon works at Investors Heritage; Burton is a Legislative Research Commission employee; Wingrove and Maffett are self-employed.

There’s been no discussion by the board to consider removing themselves from the insurance plan, Wingrove said.

However, the board of directors is always looking for ways to reduce health care costs and this year expenses are expected to be $15,000 lower than 2008, she said.

The plant board has instituted several wellness programs including smoking cessation, Wingrove said.

“The board has and will continue to examine all expenses and reduce costs whenever possible,” Wingrove wrote in an e-mail.

8.	Posted by george_dx_dexter November 12, 2009
	I am going to do everything I can to make sure that the fpb gets the minimum of my business if they are going to give sitting board members health insurance. you are supposed to get that yourself if self employed or through your employer if on a payroll. i think ann wingrove has not fully understood her family's 'cross reference" health insurance plan. the state government programs are very good, and as the chamber of commerce points out, state government pays for most of it. the customers of the plant board can't afford to do the same for the board members. i like clyde; he is one cool dude for standing up for the fpb customer base. that is what all of the board members should keep in mind, not how they can exploit their new positions for their own cost savings. if i worked for my employer one or two days a week, i don't see how it would be ethical or appropriate to have them pay my entire family's health insurance. oh well, this is just wishful thinking on my part. so what i will do is confine my services to water and electric and cut off my telephone and internet and give that to bell south. for those who stay on, beware, there will be plenty of rate increases in the months and years ahead to keep board members family's insured. wonder what obama would say to that!

3.	Posted by jstivers2 November 10, 2009
	V. Way to go! Perhaps it would be a good idea for the Frankfort Plant Board to stop paying for health insurance for members of the utility board? To my knowledge no other board pays the sitting members to work once or twice a month at meetings and then get their health insurance paid for. I have asked the Plant Board manger to confirm this but still not reply. It may be board members elect to join the Plant Board Insurance as those working in government, if they get one break . . . it is their health insurance. Cost keep going up, but no increase in pay for state workers, yet our Governor can appoint his cronies to cush jobs that pay over 100 thousand dollars per year. Why would the Plant Board allow sitting members to participate in the health insurance program is beyond my comprehension. Then, not much good news from the Plant Board since they found a way to get rid of a thirty year employee, Warner Cains. The Plant Board is now more deeply involved in political decisions than ever before. It just plain wrong to offer this as it was not needed in order to get citizens to serve on probably the most unpopular board in the city. Jim Anderson Stivers

2.	Posted by Vivian November 10, 2009
	I usually try not to complain but I am this time. State workers get busted on all the time for having the best insurance coverage around... well not any more .... lets leave the state workers alone and read what a FPB Board member said "In her case, (Ann) Wingrove said the plan covered more than the plan she had access to as the spouse of a state employee." Clyde Balwin is to be applauded for speaking out to save the FPB customers dollars. I'm sure the other board members will now ostracize him and he will be speaking with a lonely voice. Thanks Clyde! Wingrove can make all the excuses she wants like "However, the board of directors is always looking for ways to reduce health care costs and this year expenses are expected to be $15,000 lower than 2008, she said." and "The plant board has instituted several wellness programs including smoking cessation, Wingrove said." That still doesn't mitigate the fact you have an opportunity for quality health coverage somewhere else but you chose the real "Cadillac" plan.