Manitowoc Personnel Committee Meeting – September 8, 2026
Manitowoc Personnel Committee Meeting – September 8, 2026
The Personnel Committee of the City of Manitowoc met on Tuesday, September 8, 2026, at 5:00 PM in the Council Chambers and via Zoom. The meeting was called to order at 5:00 PM and adjourned at 5:32 PM after a closed session. All five committee members (Norell, Sitkiewitz, Schlei, Beeman, Benzinger) were present throughout. No public comments were submitted or offered.
Consent Calendar
- 26-0755: Approved the August 3, 2026 Personnel Committee minutes.
- 26-0756: Reviewed legal fees billed through August 2026.
- 26-0757: Reviewed the health plan report (Medical & Dental through July 2026).
- 26-0758: Received the Human Resources office initiatives report for September 2026.
- 26-0759: Received the City Attorney’s office initiatives report for August 2026.
- The consent agenda was approved unanimously by a 5–0 voice vote.
Discussion Items
26-0760: Update on Benefit Plan and Performance from McClone Tera Nelson from McClone presented an overview of the past year’s highlights and upcoming changes for 2027. Key points included:
- A planned move to United Healthcare as the self-funded third-party administrator (TPA) from Health Partners in 2027, citing improved network discounts and in-house knowledge.
- The transition to National RX Pharmacy in 2026 resulted in over $20,000 in additional rebates in the first quarter of 2026 alone.
- The city’s transplant policy helps mitigate high-dollar claims risk.
- Medicare education meetings were scheduled for later that week to assist employees over 65.
- The Manitowoc Clinic partnership saw a cost avoidance by adjusting the city’s share based on actual employee utilization rather than the school district’s higher usage.
- Future considerations: introducing tiered employee contribution structures (beyond single/family), adding an ID theft program (Aurora) in 2027, potentially changing the EAP vendor back to Aurora, and possibly moving to a new HSA administrator with better technology.
- No action was taken; the update was placed on file. A committee member asked about what Medicare-eligible employees should bring to the education meetings; Nelson advised they would already have premium data and employees could bring medication lists for detail.
26-0669: Discussion and Recommendation on Compensation-Performance Management Human Resources Director Jessie Lillibridge presented a proposed revision to the city’s performance management process, shifting from an annual review tied directly to compensation to a quarterly check-in coaching model. The goal is to strengthen performance management, provide clearer expectations, and allow timely coaching. The compensation maintenance strategy reflects input from alders. Committee members expressed strong support:
- Alder Schlei called the quarterly check-in concept “fantastic” and emphasized the importance of two-way feedback.
- Alder Sitkiewitz stressed that proper education and training for managers are critical to implementation, noting the previous plan lacked that component, and hoped the mayor would include funding in the budget.
- The motion to approve and refer to Council passed unanimously (5–0).
26-0770: Recommendation to Suspend Elements of 2026 Performance Lillibridge explained that suspending certain elements of the current performance process is needed to prepare for the new plan launching January 1, 2027, including setting new deadlines and training managers. The motion to approve and refer to Council passed unanimously (5–0).
26-0761: Retiree Insurance Discontinuation Beginning January 1, 2027 Lillibridge outlined the rationale: very low participation in retiree insurance plans. The recommendation is to grandfather current retirees but discontinue offering retiree coverage to employees leaving the city after January 1, 2027. COBRA coverage will still be available. The motion to approve and refer to Council passed unanimously (5–0).
26-0762: Request to Approve Building Inspection-LTE Job Description, Pay Rate, and Ability to Fill the Open Position Fire Chief Ben Kraynek explained that due to an unexpected four-to-eight-week absence of the city’s sole commercial building inspector, a limited-term employee (LTE) position is needed to keep projects moving. The plan is to contract with a former commercial building inspector. The motion to approve and refer to Council passed unanimously (5–0).
Closed Session
At 5:20 PM, the committee voted unanimously to enter closed session to discuss:
- 26-0763: Fire Department 48/96 schedule extension through 2027 (under Wis. Stat. §19.85(1)(e)).
- 26-0769: Unpaid leave of absence request for a Police Department employee (under Wis. Stat. §19.85(1)(c)). The closed session lasted 11 minutes; the committee reconvened in open session at 5:31 PM.
Key Outcomes
- 26-0763: Approved the recommendation to extend the Fire Department’s 48/96 schedule through 2027 (side letter) and referred it to Council. No open discussion. Vote: 5–0.
- 26-0769: Approved the unpaid leave of absence request for the Police Department employee. No open discussion. Vote: 5–0.
- All actions requiring Council referral will appear on the Common Council’s non-consent agenda.
Meeting Transcript
All right, it is five o'clock. We will call the personnel committee for the city of Manitwa to order. Um roll call. All members are present. Next item on the agenda is public common. Is there anybody here for public comment? Second call. Anyone here for public comment? Anyone online for public comment? Any previously submitted public comment? All right. So no one is here, so we will close public comment. Next item is the consent agenda. Any items that members of the committee would like to remove from the consent agenda. Move to approve the consent agenda. Second. Move and seconded to approve the assent consent agenda. All in favor say aye. Aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries unanimously. All right. Next item discussion action items. First item on the agenda 260760 update on benefit plan and performance from McClone. Yep, that's good. All right. I think you guys should also have a copy of just a few items that are listed for pre-rule summary for the January of 2027 upcoming renewal. Couple of things have a couple of items happening and benefits. Um, one of which is a move to United Healthcare, self-funded TPA from health partners in 2027. A couple of reasons for that. There's just been some third parties uh different contracts that we believe the TPA should have in-house, um, different knowledge levels of self-funding that are a little bit better manner and a broad network for you guys to include increase in some discounts to your claims. Um, other items that we are looking at we have not firmed, are going to be updates to any deductible out of pocket and or premium recommendations. Those are still forthcoming depending on where we have and we see the renewal with further information with August data. Um we wanted to just give you an apprised update in regards to the move to national farm national RX pharmacy in 2026. Um, just in the first quarter of 2026, we saw over 20,000 in additional rebates coming back, including a lot of discounts in those pharmacy claims for us already in that first quarter of 2026. Quick reminder that you do uh for the city also have a transplant policy in place that helps for the additional risk from a high dollar claims perspective. We're also running some Medicare education meetings later on this week to help those folks that are over 65 or any family members in regards to Medicare and Medicare supplemental policies. Um hoping that if there is folks that are either spouses over 65 eligible, that maybe they understand uh the worth of perhaps taking Medicare instead of staying on some of the city benefits. Overall, um, the Mantee Clinic performance, um, we were able to do a little bit of cost avoidance and looking at that partnership you guys have with the school district. We've been managing and looking at a lot of the data over the last uh couple years, and we were able to scare a little bit lower paid percentage of that clinic, adjusting to the actual levels of utilization for those employees here at the city versus kind of the increased utilization they saw at the district. So you guys weren't kind of paying maybe for some of those. So um great uh win there. Uh, we're also doing quarterly reviews in partnership with the district to make sure there's not any downtime for the nurses' availability. We also continue to have conversations about implementing perhaps different tier setup for the employee contribution. Today you do just have a single and family, um, so we are continuing to evaluate that. We're looking at adding some ID theft program for you guys in 2027 called Aurora to sort of help employees um find benefits for that. Also considering moving your EAP vendor um back to perhaps Aurora. They've got some upgrades, uh, upgrades that are happening, and we'll be meeting with them and reviewing uh in two weeks. Also wanted to just quick uh mention we may also look at a possible uh conversation around moving to a different venue for the HSA just to bring it to someone who has a little bit more technology and services.
openpublica.com