About 75 Brooke County courthouse workers called in sick in anapparent protest over a county commission plan to switch from aprivate insurance plan to the state Public Employees InsuranceAgency.
The Brooke County Commission, alerted to the sick-out plan bySheriff Bernard Kazienko, voted unanimously in an emergency meetingTuesday night to keep the private plan, but the workers called insick anyway on Wednesday.
Kazienko said he was told that employees were upset because thecommission decided to switch from the Health Plan of the Upper OhioValley to the PEIA, which would have provided fewer health carebenefits.
He would not say who told him about the sick out plan.
'There's only one or two courthouse employees here today. Theyare maintenance people,' Kazienko said.
The sheriff, assessor, magistrates, one judge and theprosecutor's staff were at work. The county clerk and circuit clerk,who had been attending a training session in Huntington, were headedback to the Northern Panhandle.
No emergency services were interrupted. The ambulance service andvolunteer firefighters continued to respond to calls. The StatePolice and city police responded to law enforcement calls in placeof absent deputies.
The sheriff, a county commissioner, the ambulance servicedirector and the county emergency services director answered 911calls.
Commissioner Norman Schwertfeger said the commission votedseveral weeks ago to switch health care plans to save money. CountyManager Bob Roccelli has said the change was expected to save about$100,000.
He said other elected officials who attended Tuesday's commissionmeeting agreed to work with the commission on other budget cutsnecessary to address an up to $500,000 deficit in the county's $6million annual budget.
Kazienko said of the commission's change of heart, 'I don't knowwhether you would call it caving in. I think the commission saw whathappened here and re-evaluated, more than caving.'
Schwertfeger said that although he had heard some people were nothappy with the health care switch, no county employees hadcomplained in writing or in person to the commission.
Kazienko said he did not plan to discipline anyone who called insick Wednesday.
Schwertfeger said, 'We work well with our elected officials inBrooke County and we will continue to do that. We've got a verytight budget. We are struggling to do the right thing with ourbudget and our employees.'
