Royston approves PTSD insurance plan for volunteer firefighters and police

Royston City Council unanimously approved a resolution in November 2024 to join the Georgia Interlocal Risk Management Agency, or GIRMA, for state-mandated post-traumatic stress disorder insurance coverage for the city’s first responders in 2025. The motion passed 6–0 and contemplated coverage for volunteer firefighters and law-enforcement officers at a quoted annual premium of $3,600. The minutes identify the month of the action but do not give an exact meeting date.

The decision establishes the insurance arrangement Royston intended to use for a benefit connected to the mental-health risks faced by emergency personnel. For a small city, the resolution joins a public-safety commitment with a recurring budget question: whether the quoted $3,600 annual cost and the covered roster would remain unchanged once the policy was administered.

The matter reached the council as a proposed GIRMA membership resolution during November 2024. The agenda described it as consideration of coverage for 2025; later meeting minutes show the council adopted the resolution rather than leaving it at the proposal stage. That distinction matters because the vote, not the agenda listing, made joining GIRMA a city action.

City leaders who supported the resolution did so unanimously, according to the 6–0 recorded vote. The city materials frame the benefit around volunteer firefighters and law-enforcement officers, the first responders named for coverage. GIRMA is the organization Royston voted to join for the insurance arrangement; the records do not include a separate public statement from the agency or from individual responders about the decision.

The council’s approval is complete, while the agenda’s proposed resolution is no longer the operative stage. What remains unconfirmed is implementation: the public materials do not establish when coverage took effect, which individuals were ultimately enrolled, or whether $3,600 became the final amount billed. City materials say the insured-person census is to be updated twice a year when covered employees change so billing reflects those insured.

The next concrete public development would be a city or GIRMA record documenting policy administration, such as coverage paperwork, a census update or billing record. The council vote is settled; what remains unresolved publicly is how the 2025 arrangement was carried out and whether any later roster changes altered the people covered or the cost to the city.