Grand Traverse County commissioners could lower a contentious hike in health insurance costs for county employees – but the move will require unanimous approval by county unions by December 14.

Commissioners voted in April to require the county’s nearly 500 employees to begin contributing 20 percent toward their health insurance premiums January 1. The move will double or triple insurance costs for most employees, who pay between 6 and 10 percent now. The changes are expected to save the county $620,000 annually.

The move prompted nearly a dozen bargaining units to file unfair labor practice grievances against the county. In November, an administrative law judge ruled against the county in the case of four of those bargaining units, located under the Grand Traverse Sheriff’s Office.

The judge ordered the county to cease-and-desist from implementing the 20 percent increase against those units, whose contracts aren't up for negotiation until the end of 2017. Because state law requires the county to apply premium hikes equitably across all employees, county officials planned to appeal the ruling and move ahead with the Jan 1 increase.

But on Wednesday, commissioners came out of a two-hour, closed-door meeting with a proposed compromise: lower the insurance increase to 15 percent. “It would be across the board for everybody in the county, because that’s what we’re required to do,” says County Administrator Tom Menzel. “But in order to do that, we need all of (the bargaining units) to agree."

Commissioners authorized Menzel to offer the 15 percent compromise to the five unions in the Sheriff’s Office and eight bargaining units representing central dispatch, health department, circuit court and general employees. All thirteen units are requested to ratify the deal by December 14 – a deadline imposed to give commissioners enough time to modify their April vote on the rate increase and finalize the 2017 budget before December 31.

Commissioner Dan Lathrop says the compromise “shows the community and our employees and our unions we’re trying to be reasonable.”

“It doesn’t solve our money problem, but it is good for both sides,” Lathrop says. “Both sides have something to lose if this is not settled sooner rather than later.”

Several outcomes are possible under the proposed deal. If all 13 unions agree to the compromise, the 15 percent rate will go into effect for all county employees January 1; the county will also drop its court appeal, according to Menzel. If the deal is rejected, the county will move ahead with the 20 percent increase January 1 and pursue the appeal – a legal battle that could last up to two years. (Payments from Sheriff's Office employees would be held in escrow until the appeal is decided.)

If the eight county bargaining units approve the compromise, but any of the five Sheriff's Office unions reject it, the 15 percent rate will be implemented and the appeal dropped; however, the Sheriff's Office budget will be cut in 2017 to make up the difference between the 6 percent paid by its employees and 15 percent paid by everyone else. That scenario would reduce the Sheriff's budget by nearly $115,000 next year.

Sheriff Tom Bensley says county administrators are “prudent to plan" for different potential outcomes, but "not at the expense of our office.” He says unions filing unfair labor practice complaints is a “contractually allowed process as a response to the county’s imposition of increased insurance copays,” and that “punishing the Sheriff’s Office and our employees – and maybe public safety, if it involves personnel cuts – is not fair.”

“What’s most troubling is that it’s been done without any talks or discussions or negotiations with our employees,” Bensley says. “There’s been no attempt to sit down and work something out.”

But Menzel hopes reaching a deal with the unions will negate the need to withhold departmental funding next year. Letters offering the 15 percent compromise went out to all union representatives this week, and officials have already begun meeting with some of the units, Menzel says. “So far they’ve indicated they will consider it and talk to their people, and I think that’s a very good sign,” he says.