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Although the Edwardsville City Council took no action on city employee heath and dental coverage, the topic remained the center of discussion.

City Administrator Michael Webb recommended that council members table a resolution that would have changed the city's standing with its insurance provider MARCIT. On the agenda, council members were to consider a resolution to withdraw from MARCIT and then re-enter into a Kansas Group being formed called MARCIT-Kansas.

"I wanted to broach the subject so we all understand what is being proposed," Webb said of his suggestion to not take action.

Under the city's current agreement with MARCIT and by Kansas law, area governmental entities are only allowed to pool their health and dental benefit programs with cities in Douglas, Johnson, Leavenworth, Miami and Wyandotte counties. Webb said that this limited the coverage the city could offer for employees who don't live in one of those counties.

The creation of MARCIT-Kansas would allow for an expanded membership and services in the future, for example, property and liability, and workers compensation. The Kansas cities would still be part of the larger MARCIT pool, which consists of mostly Missouri cities, but Webb said it would allow Edwardsville the opportunity to grow and bring in new insurance lines that aren't currently available.

"As for employees and their benefits," Webb said, "none of that changes."

The reason he suggested waiting to approve the resolution was that specific wording of the new organizations bylaws were being worked out, Webb said. While there's been a draft, Webb said he wanted the city to wait until that draft was approved. A question of concern for Webb was whether the city could return to the plan if the city withdraws from its current pool and then the MARCIT-Kansas pool can't be created.

"Until the group actually exists, we should not withdraw from the old one," said city attorney Reed Walker. "It's a matter of time but it's just a little premature now."

"Overall it's a positive," Webb added. "There are just some outstanding questions."

The council agreed, 5-0, to table the issue until the June 9 meeting.

In other business Tuesday, the council:

¢ Approved, 5-0, minutes from the May 12 meeting.

¢ Approved, 5-0, payment of bills totaling $206,459.79.

¢ Tabled, 5-0, a resolution to adopt the Edwardsville personnel manual.

¢ Heard a report from City Administrator Michael Webb about a couple of items on which he wanted to get input from the council for what direction he should go.

The first item concerned a transient visitor tax, or bed tax, which is a levy imposed by a local government on hotel stays within its jurisdiction. Webb said although the city has no hotels at the moment, the city's growth suggests one is likely in the future. He suggested setting the tax at 6 percent to prepare for when a hotel does show interest in the city and so that it will know exactly what to expect.

Webb also broached the idea of changing the city's status from third class to second class. He said the city will be required to do so when the population hits 5,000 anyway, and the growth over the past few years suggests that point is inevitable. He is currently talking with De Soto, which is a similar-size city that went through the same change last year.

¢ Heard a report from Police Chief Mark Mathies describing why the number of traffic violations written in the month of April was lower than usual. Mathies said the police department was focusing its time on several burglaries that took place that month. Most were commercial, he said, and took many hours to process, interview and investigate. While the force is at full capacity, Mathies said that one officer was still training at a police academy and two were being trained.

"We're trying to keep our head above water," he said, adding that next month he plans to better balance the officers' time investigating and writing tickets.

¢ Heard Mayor William "Heinz" Rodgers cancel the town-hall meeting scheduled for 6 to 7:30 tonight. Rodgers said he had a conflicting commitment and plans to reschedule the meeting toward the end of June.

¢ Heard an announcement from Chuck Adams about an event June 7 taking place at the Edwardsville Christian Church, 110 N. Fourth St. Starting at 9 a.m. children are invited to participate in games and face painting. There will be car-seat checks for parents as well as gardening tips and musical entertainment. This event is being held in conjunction with the all-city garage sale, which begins at 7 a.m. that day.

¢ Held an executive session for 30 minutes to discuss acquisition of real property and attorney-client privilege issues.

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