At their meeting Tuesday night, the Knoxville City Council took the next step in order to stop aggressive solicitation downtown.
The “panhandling” ordinance was among several issues addressed by the council during their bi-monthly meeting at the City County Building. Attending the meeting were Mayor Bill Haslam and council members Joe Bailey, Bob Becker, Mark Brown, Barbara Pelot, Rob Frost, Marilyn Roddy, Steve Hall, Chris Woodhull and Joseph Hultquist.
“It’s really legislation that’s come from the people themselves,” said Council Member Woodhull, who originally came up with the idea for the ordinance.
The ordinance “to amend Chapter 16, Article XI of the Knoxville Code of Ordinances to establish a prohibition against certain forms of aggressive solicitation” was passed unanimously. It was on its second reading with the council.
Another issue that drew some protest from speakers was a resolution allowing the mayor to adopt a renewal proposal from medical insurance companies for city employees. Under the proposal, the city would pay 74 percent of medical insurance for employees. The other 26 percent would be paid by the employees themselves, an increase of around 4.5 percent from the previous year.
Several city employees spoke against the proposal that would have the city pay less of the total percentage of their health insurance. This would mean employees would have to pay an extra $114,000 this year on insurance.
“We realize a lot of the increases coming out of this are not because of the city but because of the insurance companies,” said Scott Coffey, a member of the Fraternal Order of Police.
Coffey asked the council to cover the increased costs with pay raises.
“As usual, we’re on the tail end of it again,” said Anita Cash on behalf of general government employees.
Some of the premiums are increasing more than others unfairly, Cash said. This would push employees towards buying the higher-priced premiums.
“What I have a problem with is how the premiums are set,” Cash said. “You’re taking better care of employees’ families than employees.”
Jerry Burgess, the president of Healthcare 21 Business Coalition, spoke on behalf of the proposal saying that the underlying system of paying for healthcare is broken.
“Double-digit healthcare costs persist,” Burgess said. “There’s no quick fix to this problem.”
The proposal would create monetary incentives for employees who work to improve their health, such as lower healthcare costs for employees who exercise and quit smoking. This would provide a reason for employees to be more accountable, Burgess said.
According to members of the council, incentives such as these would help offset some of the costs of increasing health insurance. The proposal was passed unanimously.
