Perhaps Hammond Can Benefit by Doing This!

Rather interesting! Just ran across this, and thought, "Hey, maybe Hammond should look into this firm!"

http://www.suburbanchicagonews.com/heraldnews/news/opinions/1844215,4_4_JO25_EDIT_S1-091025.article#at

Joliet learns $1.2 million lesson
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October 25, 2009

J ust by opening a contract for bids, the city of Joliet will be saving $1.2 million in the next three years.

What Joliet learned by having bids for its health insurance broker is a lesson for the city as well as any other taxing bodies that are looking to save as many taxpayer dollars as possible during these tough economic times.

Things aren't supposed to get much better next year for local governments because the cost of living index is projected to be around 0 percent, and many taxing bodies must abide by a tax cap for their levies. That state-required tax cap is 5 percent or the cost of living index, whichever is less.

So, governments are going to face even more pressure to cut expenses, and one potential area is in professional contracts.

Joliet's open bidding for health insurance brokers resulted in ProSource Financial, of Westchester, being awarded the contract for $78,600 annually for three years.

Last year, the city paid $480,000 and will this year pay about $450,000 to John Manner Insurance Agency, of Joliet, a local division of insurance giant Brown & Brown.

Joliet had been paying the John Manner agency a 3.1 percent commission on every health insurance claim. Starting next year, the city will be paying just a flat rate.

Commenting on the new contract, Councilman John Shetina said, "I like the three-year contract and I certainly like the dollars."

Well, what took so long? The city had not sought competing health insurance broker proposals since 1992 -- 17 years.

Of course, the city had been rolling in casino revenue and things as cumbersome as bids on a broker seemed unnecessary.

Now, the city, which has cut 42 police department positions and 32 being police officers, is looking for savings anywhere it can be found.

An extra $1.2 million certainly could restore some of those needed police officers, possibly reducing the recurring crime problems on the streets.

This savings also is something that any local taxing body must consider.

Every professional contract should be open for bidding, whether it's for an attorney or the city plumbing and electrical inspectors.

With budgets forecast to be even tighter, these local governments are obligated to save every taxpayer dollar that they can.

Such actions may mean the severing of longtime contracts with local professionals, but as the city of Joliet learned, there can be 1.2 million reasons to open these contracts for bidding.