After considering the matter for a little over a year, the Carroll County Electric Department (CCED) Board voted not to go through the Tennessee Consolidated Retirement System (TCRS) for employee retirement benefits and to keep current employee retirement plans as they are.
The decision came after reviewing a recent survey of CCED employees during the April 29 meeting.
Of the 47 employees taking part in the survey, 60 percent responded that they would not be interested in putting up their own money to buy into the TCRS plan for five percent of past wages going back five years.
And of the 28 employees comprising that 60 percent, 100 percent of those responded that they would not want to opt into the TCRS plan starting from scratch with no money from past years of service added into their retirement benefits.
All of those 28 employees indicated that they would prefer to just continue with their current company plan at 12 percent of base pay.
“We been wrestling with this for over a year,” said board chairman Terry Howell. “Generally, it seems that people are against getting involved in TCRS.”
“That is what I thought would happen,” said board member Chris Gurley, who made the motion that the board not enter into a contract with TCRS for employee retirement benefits.
Board attorney Robert Keeton Jr. advised that Gurley should add to his motion that the decision was based on the employee survey. Gurley revised his motion to include that addition, and the motion passed unanimously.
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In other business:
•The board approved a bid from Peppers Ford of McKenzie for the purchase of two Ford F-150 4 x 4 pickup trucks for $26,514 each. A bid from a state agency for $28,709 per vehicle was rejected.
•The board voted to sponsor a hole at the upcoming Carroll County Chamber of Commerce Golf Tournament for $100.
•CCED financial officer Ryan Drewry advised the mobile app for the online customer portal was up and running and that 300 bill payments had already been made using the app. Drewry said that information about how to download and use the app would be included with customer bills for the next few months.
•CCED general manager Danny Brawner advised the board that TEC has completed all the fiber connections in the ongoing project to expand fiber cabling and high-speed internet access to certain portions of Carroll County. Brawner said they should be ready to start hooking customers up within the next couple of weeks.
•Brawner said that the CCED lobby would be opened up to the public starting on Monday, May 3, and that no CCED employees were currently testing positive for COVID-19.
•The next board meeting was set for May 27 at 2:30 p.m. at the Chamber of Commerce.
