County to set 457B plan for employees

LEE COUNTY – The Lee County Board of Supervisors is considering adding a retirement benefit for county employees that would provide a potential match for employee contributions.
At Tuesday’s regular meeting of the board in Fort Madison, the board approved moving forward with establishing a 457(B) program as an additional retirement vehicle for county employees. The county currently has IPERS for employees, which has a 9.44% contribution rate, according to Lee County Budget Director Cindy Renstrom.
The county also has a non-matching 401K in place where employees can contribute on their own.
Supervisor Chair Denise Fraise said the county already has the IPERS and the 401K plans and the additional match would come from taxpayers. But Supervisor Garry Seyb said when you get granular with the program, it could be a cost-savings to the county.
Seyb said the match could be set at a dollar rate and not a percentage. He said the 457(B) then becomes part of negotiations on a regular basis and could be part of annual increases that could be potentially cheaper than straight across the board percentage increases.
Seyb said now the county would have additional ways to compensate employees including upping the monthly match, which across the board might be less expensive than annual raises based on salary.
More of the cost of the 457(B) will be shouldered by the employees in the form of fees, but Supervisor Chuck Holmes who brought the issue to the supervisors, said those fees are negligible.
The action was to spend $550 to establish the fund with additional details to be worked out at a later date.