Imagine 18,000 employees doing morning calisthenics in City Hall Plaza

City Hall bureaucrats and Lycra-clad workout devotees don't seem to have much in common.

But one fitness-minded city councilor says Boston's government employees need to get in shape. It might be time, Michael P. Ross says, for calisthenics on City Hall Plaza and an ''anti-doughnut zone" in the building.

The Beacon Hill councilor, a jogger who works out at least three times a week, suggests daily exercise classes on the red-brick plain outside City Hall and an overhaul of cafeteria fare inside, including a ban on doughnuts.

''This coffee-and-doughnuts mentality has got to go," said Ross, 33. ''As a city, we need to be healthier."

Programs to help employees quit smoking and to give them discounts on gym memberships are also part of his recommendations, an effort to tame increases in City Hall's health insurance premiums.

''It'd be cheaper in the long run to pay for a $50 gym membership than a $20,000 bypass surgery," Ross said.

Under Mayor Thomas M. Menino's spending proposal for the fiscal year that starts July 1, about 10 percent of the city's record $2.04 billion budget goes to healthcare costs. At $220 million, it is the third biggest expense, behind police and schools.

The city covers medical insurance for approximately 60,000 people, including 18,000 employees, 13,000 retirees, and their families, said Dennis DiMarzio, the city's chief operating officer. The city's healthcare costs increased from $179 million in 2003-04 to $200 million in 2004-05. DiMarzio attributed the increase to the number of claims from last year and the rising cost of medical care.

Councilor John Tobin of West Roxbury said he would welcome employee group exercise classes.

''I look forward to Mike Ross's yoga classes out there in City Hall Plaza. I think that class would be oversubscribed," he said, tongue in cheek. ''He could be the Richard Simmons of City Hall. It could be a side career for him."

But DiMarzio said he wonders how many city employees would sign up for fitness programs.

''You can't force them," DiMarzio said. ''If we were to offer a health club, chances are the people who will join are the ones who stay in shape. The people who won't are the ones who don't."

Lincoln Smith, a city researcher, said he would not participate in an employee workout program, saying ''stretching out on a mat in City Hall wouldn't be very conducive."

Jim Durkin, spokesman for the local American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, which represents 2,000 Boston city workers, said the union would support fitness measures as long as they don't punish people for being out of shape.

''A lot of city workers are fit," said the city's legislative aide, Juan Lopez. ''I look around, I don't see any more fat people than in any other places. That stereotype is wrong."

He chuckled over the idea of banning doughnuts, saying, ''I know they're bad for you, but they don't have to be banned. I love doughnuts."

John O'Neill, a clerk in the Boston Elderly Commission office, said if City Hall became a no-doughnut zone, he could easily find ways around it. ''Dunkin' Donuts is right outside. I could just go there," he said.

Bill Momtsios, owner of one of City Hall's two cafeterias, said the sale of doughnuts has dipped over the years and that a ban would not necessarily hurt his business. A few years ago, he would sell six boxes of Krispy Kremes every day. But now, he barely sells a single box on an average day, he said.

''If all 31,000 employees were Olympic swimmers, obviously our health expenses would be lower," said Ross. ''Obviously we're not. We're city workers."

Madison Park can be reached at Mpark@globe.com.