By Chris OrletRecord Managing EditorOne of the recommendations from last year’s Missouri state audit of the city of Warrenton was to change the way the city sought bids for employee health insurance.“The auditors said maybe we didn’t take the best or the cheapest bid,” said Mayor Jerry Dyer. “They recommended we set up a scoring system when we select an insurance carrier and hire a broker to represent the city and let the broker solicit bids.”Warrenton Board of Aldermen took that advice to heart Tuesday as they chose the brokerage firm of J.W. Terrill. The company, which bills itself as a full-service provider of risk management and employee benefit solutions, is based in Chesterfield.The city currently uses Coventry as its employee health care provider.This winter the city advertised for bids for a broker and received five responses. Of those five, four: Terrill, Arthur J. Gallagher & Co., Scott Agency and Tri County met the criteria.Dyer said the city set up an ad hoc committee to score the bids and narrow the finalists down to two. Committee members were Jerry Dyer, Gary Auch, Karen Casserly, city Director of Operations Terri Thorn, and city Human Resources Administrative Assistant Brandi Walters. The committee scored the bids from 0-100 and came out with two finalists, J.W. Terrill and Arthur J. Gallagher & Co.The committee then interviewed representatives from each company for an hour each.“They were both large firms with an experienced staff and both represent the full marketplace of insurance carriers,” said Dyer.But there were a few important differences.Thorn said Terrill promised a response time on all questions of half a day. Gallagher, based in Itasca, Ill., couldn’t give a definite timeline.Terrill would have all support staff in nearby Chesterfield, whereas Gallagher’s support staff would be in Itasca.Because of its proximity, Terrill would have qualified wellness consultants available nearby to set up programs, whereas Gallagher would not.In the end, the proximity and its emphasis on employee wellness programs played a large role in the committee’s unanimous decision to go with Terrill, said Thorn.Said Auch: “From my perspective, I think this is a good direction to go from what we’ve been doing. But it is important that staff take advantage of these wellness opportunities.”Casserly said to her the big difference between the two was she felt Gallagher specializes in much larger cities than Warrenton.In other action Tuesday, the board accepted the Warrenton Tourism Board’s recommendation to spend $10,000 on a July 4 fireworks display. Officials said that no other groups were contributing funds to the fireworks display.The tourism board, however, did not approve spending $953 to replace a final group of red Christmas bows. According to Thorn, the tourism board did not think the bows brought tourists to the city.Warrenton choses insurance broker