February 2018 Advocate: Benefits Committee
COMMITTEE REPORT
Benefits Committee continues to explore alternative health insurance brokers to CalPERS
by Monica Malamud, AFT 1493 President
As reported in the December 2017 Advocate, the Benefits Committee, composed of representatives from the three unions in the district, Human Resources and retirees, met for the first time in November 2017. Scheduling meetings proved quite challenging, so at the December 19 meeting, after finals week, committee members decided that a regular meeting schedule would work best.
Chancellor Ron Galatolo was present during part of the December 2017 committee meeting, and he stressed that the objectives of exploring alternatives to CalPERS were to give employees more flexibility in health plan design and to save money, with the money saved on benefits going back to each unit.
At the January 18, 2018 meeting, representatives from Alliant were invited to describe their services and possible options for SMCCCD. Alliant is both a broker and a consultant which serves over 1000 public entity clients in California, such as cities, counties and school districts.
The Benefits Committee meets at the District Office on the third Thursday of the month, from 1:30 to 3 p.m.