Ward 2 Alderman Lisa Wynn is leading the move for Starkville to sever ties with Tim Cox, the insurance agent who has served the city for almost two decades.
On March 1, Cox, of the Columbus-based Cox Consulting Services Inc., will be replaced by the Integrity Group’s Debbie Jaudon, even though he did a majority of the work developing the city’s insurance policy for the year.
The change does not replace Starkville’s policy or its employees’ options. However, Starkville Mayor Wiseman said the mid-fiscal year change prevents Cox from receiving the back-end compensation he deserves for front-end work.
Wiseman said Wednesday he is considering vetoing the change but had yet to make a formal decision on the matter. If he does, the board’s 4-2 vote — Ward 3 Alderman David Little and Ward 4 Alderman Jason Walker opposed, while Ward 5 Alderman Scott Maynard abstained — would not reach the five votes required to overturn a veto.
Before Tuesday’s meeting, Maynard said Cox was named to a board on which a relative serves.
Wynn previously targeted costly insurance fees passed on to workers as the reason driving the change, but Tuesday she accused Cox of hiding information regarding the city’s former plus-one insurance option, which previously extended coverage to a number of adults dependent on workers, including employees’ same-sex partners.
Last month, the board voted behind closed doors to amend the plus-one policy to only those in state-recognized marriages — heterosexual couples.
Cox was not in attendance Tuesday. He told both Wiseman and Chief Administrative Officer Taylor Adams earlier this month that a scheduling conflict would not allow him to be in Starkville at the time.
Wynn said she learned of the trio’s meeting from another alderman who said he was suspicious of the gathering.
“It is evident Mr. Cox does not want to be transparent or accountable with his business relationship with the city,” she said. “I am sad that Mr. Cox…was not transparent regarding crucial information the board needed to make an informed decision. Mr. Cox was present during one of the board meetings as our discussions arose, but (he) failed to request recognition to clarify any misunderstandings board members clearly had relating to the health coverage’s contents. Mr. Cox, in my opinion, can no longer be trusted as it relates to his business relationship with the city.”
Aldermen were pressured by the city’s religious community to repeal the plus-one insurance offering and Starkville’s inclusion statement, the first of its kind among Mississippi’s municipal governments that granted non-discrimination protections to members of the lesbian, gay, bi-sexual and transgender communities.
After Wynn’s recusal saved Wiseman’s veto of the board’s first plus-one repeal, her January flip-flop paved the way for its passage on Jan. 6. Aldermen moved into executive session then, giving no warning to the public about Vice Mayor Roy A. Perkins’ attempt to nix the policy and the inclusion statement.
Tuesday, the mayor countered Wynn’s accusations of impropriety by saying Cox wrote the insurance policy he was instructed to write, the same one the board of aldermen unanimously approved in September.
“There was an implication that Mr. Cox hid something from you. That is absolutely not true,” Wiseman said. “Mr. Cox would not have been doing his job if he did not write the policy city staff asked him to write. Ultimately, the decision on that policy was yours. It is more wrong to insinuate he did something wrong or hid information from you, because he absolutely did not, than to replace him as the agent on record for the policy he wrote.”
Cox, in preparation of delivering the proposed policy to the full board, met with Maynard, who serves as the city’s budget committee chairman, and was available, along with city staff, to answer any questions as aldermen decided its passage, Wiseman said.
Cox also sent a letter to the city, including the seven aldermen, outlining the Starkville’s proposed insurance policy.
A two-page letter from Sept. 2’s meeting is present on the city’s website and shows Cox Consulting Services acknowledged “domestic partnership eligibility” with all capitalized letters at the bottom of the first page. The document was submitted to the city in late August and added to the Sept. 2 e-packet four days before the meeting.
Both Walker and Little attempted to delay Wynn’s motion after Jaudon spoke of offering city employees a better experience with customer service.
Jaudon delivered documents outlining her company’s services to aldermen at the table, and Walker said he was unable to make an informed decision on the matter because of how late the information was presented.
Little, who works in the insurance industry, said aldermen would be prudent to issue a request for proposals to companies interested in serving the city. Wiseman previously said he would not oppose an exercise using such a process to compare insurance agent options and costs.
“The Integrity Group has a lot to bring to the table, but I’d like to extend the option of coming forward to others,” Little said. “It’s good to look at your options.”
No other aldermen commented from the board on the matter, other than Little, Walker and Wynn.
In other business, the board approved an upcoming Starkville Parks Commission takeover and created a seven-member ad hoc committee to study issues surrounding the park system. Each alderman is expected to appoint one member in the coming months.
Carl Smith covers Starkville and Oktibbeha County for The Dispatch. Follow him on Twitter @StarkDispatch
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