Town votes to change workers' health benefits
Published on May 9th, 2007
STONEHAM, MA - The overriding theme during the first night of this year's Town Meeting was savings, savings, savings and - with that in mind - the Town Meeting voting body approved a pair of Articles designed to revamp health coverage and retirement packages for town employees.
A majority of raised hands approved both Article 16, which dealt with the possibility of enrolling all town employees and retirees in the GIC (Group Insurance Commission) instead of the current Blue Cross/Blue Shield coverage the town currently utilizes. According to Finance and Advisory Board member John DeAmicis, who presented the article to the voters, the move could stabilize health care costs for the town and have an ultimate annual savings of $750,000 for Stoneham - a move that wouldn't pay immediate dividends but would instead what's been a growing cost each year and would start to pay dividends in FY2009. The GIC already supplies health care coverage to 268,000 state employees and legislation currently in the Massachusetts state house would allow municipalities to join the program.
"There has been unprecedented growth to healthcare costs for Stoneham over the last few years, and this is something that could stabilize and slow the growth of that cost and bring some certainty to the table," said DeAmicis.
Several town employees stepped up to the microphone and dissented from the Finance and Advisory Board's opinion, with Town Hall employee Kathleen Sullivan giving the most memorable and quotable response.
"You're asking us to vote on legislation that hasn't even been finalized yet...how do we even know what exactly it is that we're voting for," said Sullivan. "What you're asking us to do is vote for a pig in a poke, and I'm really not in any mood to do something like that tonight. I urge everyone to vote no on this."
Town Administrator Dave Ragucci stepped to the microphone to address the concern about the vagaries of the article, and informed the voters that the state needed to know by Oct. 1 if the town intended to join the GIC, and there would be no formal way to adopt the changes prior to that deadline.
"In this particular instance, we're looking for the town meeting voters to take a leap of faith to potentially save the town a good deal of money that can be returned to other areas of need," said Ragucci.
Former Stoneham Police Chief Greg O'Keefe also pointed out that the Board of Selectmen had had an opportunity to join up with the GIC and declined to take on that particular health coverage, raising questions as to why what presumably wasn't good enough for the Selectmen would be good enough for the rest of the town employees.
The voters ultimately decided to side with Ragucci and the Board of Selectmen and Finance and Advisory Board, as they overwhelmingly opted to explore the opportunities and savings that GIC might afford and passed Article 16.
The Town also likewise voted to approve Article 17 which would require all town employees and immediate family enjoying benefits to enroll in Medicare Part A and enroll in a Medicare health benefits supplement provided by the town.
The town officials billed the plan as to no extra cost to town employees, but several retirees, including former Stoneham Fire Chief Bill Abbott, voiced disagreement and presented information that retirees would have to pay an additional $100 per month for health coverage - an almost impossible task for people already on fixed incomes.
"On the surface this would look like a slam-dunk, no-brainer but there are 21 retirees out there in the Town of Stoneham that this would affect very aversely," said Abbott. "There would be an additional cost of $93.50 per month, per person to those 21 individuals under the plan. That's simply not fair to people that had worked 30 or 40 years and given their lives to this town."
DeAmicis once again presented the article, and stated that the switch would save Stoneham $100,000 in FY2008 and could ultimately save the town up to $5 million over the next ten years - a huge amount of money to a town struggling to make ends meet.
"In this particular instance, we need to ask ourselves what's more important to the Town of Stoneham: 21 individuals or the 22,000 people that are facing some difficult financial decisions," said Ragucci. "What we're trying to do here it what's best for the whole town."
Abbott and O'Keefe both requested that an amendment be added to the article that would have required the town to cover the additional cost to the 21 retirees, but the amendment died on the floor of Town Hall.
The Town Meeting voters once again approved Article IVII, which switched to the Medicare plan. The Town Meeting voters also approved Article 15, which formalized Stoneham's Board of Health mutual aid agreement with the towns of Medford, Malden, Melrose, Wakefield and any other relevant cities for the next 25 years. Stoneham was the last town to formally join the inter-municipal agreement.
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