DeKalb’s whittling of its workforce to meet budgetary goals has not made much of a dent in the liability for compensated absences.

For a number of years, the City of DeKalb has provided post-employment health and life insurance coverage for all of its retirees, whether contractually obligated or not.

Known as Other Post-Employment Benefits (OPEB), this program has been changed for greater sustainability as a result of recommendations by Executive Partners, Inc. (EPI) in May 2009.

Perhaps EPI’s recommendations were in part made possible by GASB 45 rules implemented in FY2008 that improved OPEB reporting. Empty cells in the table indicate figures unavailable prior to that year.

An Early Retirement Incentive (ERI) for IMRF employees was offered in FY2004, and 11 employees accepted it. The number of OPEB beneficiaries has accelerated alarmingly since.

All data have been taken from City of DeKalb Comprehensive Annual Financial Reports (CAFRs).

The FY2011 CAFR, when available, should tell us whether OPEB costs are getting under control or continuing to eat us alive.

The following is a year-over-year look at City of DeKalb’s Workers Compensation liabilities along with total claims payables and Workers Comp Fund deficit information for comparisons’ sake.

Claims Payable (in the table as “Total Claims Payable”) is a liability listed on net assets statements. DeKalb’s Claims Payable used to include health insurance, Workers Comp, and property/liability payables. In the middle of FY2008 (January 1, 2008) health insurance payables were removed from this category when the City of DeKalb stopped insuring itself and joined an employee health insurance cooperative.

Health claims incurred prior to the change typically totaled $3-4 million annually and the payable had reached $500,000+ by FY2007.

Property/liability payables, still part of “Claims Payable,” also show a growth trend, ranging from $0 in FY2003-4 up to $199,500 in FY2010.

Data comes from Comprehensive Annual Financial Reports (CAFRs) from the city’s Downloads page. “Not Avail.” means the data is not available online.

The following are selected year-over-year figures from asset statements found in DeKalb’s Comprehensive Annual Financial Reports (CAFRs).

Notes:

–The liabilities reported here come from governmental and proprietary activities. They do not include pension liabilities.

–”Other” liabilities include both payables and unearned tax revenues. Both accounts payable and unearned property taxes roughly doubled during the time period, the latter holding steady at about 60% of the total. [Added about 11:30 a.m.]

–DeKalb’s net assets also grew during this time period, from $104,778,443 to $159,611,331. Assets include land and revenues but by far most of the value of assets is in infrastructure. During the early to mid 2000s there were miles of roads and water mains built. Gains in net assets have slowed greatly since 2007 and actually fell a little in FY2010.

–Figures before FY2009 will not add up to the totals shown, due to my not including unamortized premiums (ranging from less than $100,000 up to about $350,000) listed as long-term liabilities in the years prior to ’09.