Commissioners approve revised medical insurance policy, discuss elevator repair

Gonzales County commissioners approved the revised version of their medical insurance policy for retirees at a special called meeting on Monday, Aug. 18, one week after rescinding a previous measure that paid out $300 per month for life to certain qualified retirees.

They also agreed to spend $8,000 to repair a cylinder on the Gonzales County Courthouse elevator rather than replacing the entire mechanism so they can get it back up and running and be back into compliance with the Americans With Disabilities Act of 1990.

Meanwhile, commissioners will wait for a week until their Aug. 25 regular meeting before determining if the area received significant enough precipitation or if a burn ban should be put into place.

The newly revised health insurance policy states that 100 percent of the monthly premium will be paid for retired employees and officials if employees have reached an age of 58 with a minimum of 20 years of full-time service and have filed for a bona fide retirement with a monthly check from the TCDRS (Texas County and District Retirement System). This benefit will continue until the individual is eligible for Medicare coverage and they will be on the same group medical coverage plan as current employees and elected officials.

Retired elected officials must have reached the age of 58 and have at least 12 years of service with the county to participate under the same benefit and must have filed for TCDRS retirement. An individual’s prior service to the county can be counted towards the necessary total — for example, if an individual previously worked 15 years for the county as an employee and then worked eight years as an elected official, that would count as 23 years and satisfy the requirement.

Once the individual reaches Medicare eligibility at age 65, he or she will go on a Medicare supplement plan. Last September, the court originally voted to give those retirees a $300 per month stipend or $3,600 total per year without end — a move that had only applied to 24 eligible individuals.

However, the court voted 3-2 to rescind that measure after the county’s outside auditing firm warned giving this benefit could be illegal, would obligate the county long term to making these payments and could have a negative benefit on the county’s bond rating. The measure will go off the books starting the new fiscal year on Oct. 1, but cost the county up to $84,600 in fiscal year 2024-25.

Commissioners also discussed the elevator at the courthouse, which has been down for some time. County Judge Pat Davis reached out to a technician who had worked on the elevator prior to his retirement from his former company about whether the county would need to bite the bullet and replace the entire elevator or could make a short-term fix until next year, when the county will be looking to renovate the entire Courthouse in conjunction with the Texas Historical Commission — should funding be made available to help Gonzales County.

The technician confirmed on a quick phone call during the meeting with Davis that repairing the cylinder would be the quickest way to get the elevator back into operation because “if they have to come in here (and remove the entire elevator) it's going to be months before they are able to tear all that out and put it back in.”

Emergency Management Director Jimmy Harless discussed the potential of rainfall coming to Gonzales from a tropical storm in the Gulf. He said the county currently has a Keetch-Byram Drought Index average of 571, with some areas to the north in the 640 range and areas in the south at around 400-500.

“Usually our threshold is about 600 (to enact a burn ban),” Harless said. “There is a slight chance of rain this week Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday or Friday. It's whatever y'all would like to do.”

Precinct 1 Commissioner Tony Matias said he has seen the fire departments recently roll out on several spot fires that could have gotten potentially worse and “they can get out of hand real quickly.”

Commissioners decided to watch and pray for more precipitation with a plan to act on a burn ban on Aug. 25 if not enough rainfall comes. Lavaca County did enact a burn ban on Monday, Aug. 18.