Girard at Large Releases Benefit information on elected officials

Published on October 11, 2012 (10-11-12) at 8 PM

Girard at Large releases benefit information on Manchester’s elected officials.

On June 14, 2012, as the budget battles raged, Girard at Large requested information on the benefits taken by members of the Board of Mayor and Aldermen and the Board of School Committee.  City Human Resource Officer Jane Gile responded within 4 hours.  Here’s the email she provided and the information she attached.  It should be noted that both Mayor Ted Gatsas and Welfare Paul Martineau, considered full time employees by the city’s personnel classification system, take the city’s benefits plan.

 

Rich

Attached is a breakdown by individual alderman of the health and/or dental plan selected during the most recent open enrollment (plan year 07/2012 – 06/2013).  There are four aldermen who will not be on the City’s plan and four aldermen who will not take dental insurance.  The plan year costs are broken down by quarter, by employer share and employee (alderman) share.  The aldermen and department heads pay 20% of the costs for both health and dental.

Health Plan Number of aldermen

HMO single                 4

HMO two person         2

HMO Family                4

Dental Plan Number of Aldermen

Single                         4

2 person                     3

Family                        3

Regards,

Jane

	ALDERMEN BREAKDOWN			80/20 Plan
			Employee.per qrtr		Employer per qrtr
Alderman	Health	Dental	Health	Dental	Health	Dental
Patrick Arnold	HMO Single	DD-1	408.18	24.30	1,632.74	97.20
Kevin Corriveau	HMO Single	DD-1	408.18	24.30	1,632.74	97.20
Joyce Craig	HMO Family	DD-F	1,098.03	90.57	4,392.07	362.28
Phil Greazzo	HMO Single	DD-1	408.18	24.30	1,632.74	97.20
Thomas Katsiantonis	HMO Family	DD-F	1,098.03	90.57	4,392.07	362.28
Joseph K. Levasseur	HMO Family	DD-F	1,098.03	90.57	4,392.07	362.28
Patrick Long	–	–	0.00	0.00	0.00	0.00
Ronald Ludwig	–	–	0.00	0.00	0.00	0.00
Daniel O’Neil	HMO Family	–	1,098.03	0.00	4,392.07	0.00
Edward Osborne	HMO Two	DD-2	820.47	47.15	3,281.86	188.59
Russell Ouellette	–	DD-2	0.00	47.15	0.00	188.59
James Roy	–	–	0.00	0.00	0.00	0.00
Barbara Shaw	HMO Single	DD-1	408.18	24.30	1,632.74	97.20
William Shea	HMO Two	DD-2	820.47	47.15	3,281.86	188.59

On JULY 10, 2012, the school district finally replied, but would only report that there were six members who took the health plan and eight that took the dental plan.  They provided a total cost to the district of $82,109.24 and a total “Board Member Share” of $20,527.48.

Not content with that information, I sent another request that day, arguing that there is no privacy law that exempts the compensation of elected officials, including what benefits they take from the government, from public scrutiny.  I also reminded them that I had, in fact, obtained this information while a columnist for the Manchester Express.  Business Administrator Karen DeFrancis replied, in part, as follows:  “Given the nature of the request, the privacy interests at stake, and the fact that the Board will not meet again until July 30, 2012, we need an additional twenty (20) days to more fully respond to your request. Thank you for your continued patience. Karen”

It wasn’t difficult to figure out that they were going to take the matter up with the board in Non-Public Session.  A move I questioned before it happened and challenged once I was able to confirm it took place.  You can read the email, which we sent and posted to this blog on August 13, here.  Below is the document I received in 2008.  It set the precedent I asked to be followed in 2012 and matched what I got from the city on the aldermen.

School Board Member	Medical Plan	Fiscal 2009 District Medical Cost	Dental Plan	Fiscal 2009 District Dental Cost	Fiscal 2009 Total District Cost
Avard, John	Family Matthew Thornton	$16,368.72	Family Dental	$1,488.84	$17,857.56
Beaudry, Arthur	NA	$0.00	NA	$0.00	$0.00
Cote, Jonathan	NA	$0.00	NA	$0.00	$0.00
Craig, Joyce	Family Blue Choice	$15,810.84	Family Dental	$1,488.84	$17,299.68
DeBlasi, Michael	NA	$0.00	NA	$0.00	$0.00
Dolman, Stephen	NA	$0.00	NA	$0.00	$0.00
Gagnon Langton, Debra	NA	$0.00	Family Dental	$1,488.84	$1,488.84
Gelinas, David	NA	$0.00	NA	$0.00	$0.00
Herbert, Chris	NA	$0.00	NA	$0.00	$0.00
Kelley, Kathleen	2p Blue Choice	$11,711.52	2p Dental	$774.84	$12,486.36
Kruse, Douglas	Family Matthew Thornton	$16,368.72	Family Dental	$1,488.84	$17,857.56
Labanaris, Katherine	1p Blue Choice	$5,855.88	1p Dental	$399.48	$6,255.36
O’Sullivan, Robert	NA	$0.00	NA	$0.00	$0.00
Soucy, Donna	NA	$0.00	NA	$0.00	$0.00
Grand Total Cost		$66,115.68		$7,129.68	$73,245.36

Eleven days later, the district provided the information below.  They also answered our challenge on their going into non-public session to discuss this matter with the board.  They refused to provide the requested legal justification for withholding information on the plans chosen by each member.  NB, Ward 3 member Christopher Stewart did, upon learning of our request, direct Superintendent Brennan to release all details of his coverage as he believed the public had a right to know how much he “cost the taxpayers.”  I applaud his transparency and desire to be accountable to the public he obviously knows he serves.

Brennan, in a letter to Girard at Large, also claimed that the discussion of whether not to release the requested information about elected officials’ benefits was not subject to the state’s Right to Know Law, writing “although the Board went into ‘non-public’ and conducted a roll-call vote, the discussion with counsel was not a meeting under RSA 91-A.  As you know, a Board’s consultation with its attorney is specifically exempted from the definition of a ‘meeting’ under RSA 91-A:I (b).  Although the Board went into non-pubilc to hold this discussion, by operation of law, the discussion was a non-meeting with counsel.”  He also wrote “even if the Board had no basis to go into non-public to discuss this matter, the discussion it had with counsel and the minutes taken during that discussion are confidential records which are exempt from the right-to-know and protected by attorney-client privilege.”

That truly shocking position would make sense if, and only if, a discussion over whether or not benefit information about elected officials was exempted by the law. (Remember, they took a vote to go into a meeting that wasn’t a meeting under the law that requires a vote to go into a meeting under the law.)  Worse, the assertion that the board could claim that discussions held in an improperly convened non-public session would also be subject to attorney-client privilege and therefore can be kept secret, renders the law completely useless.  It means that the board can go into non-public session whenever it wants and withhold whatever it wants from the public so long as they do it in the presence of their attorney.  That is troubling.

Since the law specifically disallows non-public sessions from being used to protect the reputations of board members, this cannot be the case.  Moreover, the Right to Know Law’s exemptions to meet with counsel may only be invoked for those items allowed by the law.  This matter does not reach that threshold and we maintain that they improperly went into that meeting with counsel and are obligated to release the minutes.

Nonetheless, we succeeded in forcing the district to release the names of those elected board members who take the city’s benefits and at least have a total cost to the city along with the total contributions made by board members.

We know that Christopher Stewart takes a couples plan and that John Avard takes a family plan.  Donna Soucy is single, without children, so she can have nothing other than a single plan.

 

Response to Right to Know Request from Rich Girard

Insurance for Board of School Committee Members

The annual premiums associated with board members’ health and dental insurance as of August 21, 2012 are as follows:

Health Dental Total

District Share $ 81,298.96 $ 8,530.72 $ 89,829.68

Board Member Share $ 20,324.72 $ 2,132.72 $ 22,457.44

Total $101,623.68 $10,663.44 $112,287.12

The following board members receive health or dental benefits as a result of their position on the Board:

Health

John Avard (Ward10), Roger Beauchamp (Ward 12), Erika Connors (Ward 8), Jason Cooper  (Ward 11), Theodore Rokas (Ward 5), Donna Soucy (Ward 6), Christopher Stewart (Ward 3)

Dental

John Avard, Roger Beauchamp, Erika Connors, Jason Cooper, Debra Langton (Ward 2), Theodore Rokas, Roy Shoults, Donna Soucy, David Wihby (at-Large)

Each Board member has the right to privacy under the State and Federal (HIPPA) laws, therefore detailed information has not been provided.

Christopher Stewart has requested that we provide detailed information on the plan he participates in. Committeeman Stewart is enrolled in a two person HMO health insurance plan. The District share of the premium on an annual basis is $14,179.60 and the premium paid by Committeeman Stewart is $3,544.88.

The premiums identified in this report are not the actual expenditures for health and dental insurance for Board members. It is the estimated cost based on premium rates developed from our claim history. The District is self insured for health and dental insurance; therefore, the cost is the actual cost of claims paid plus administration fees.

We will review your other right to know requests and respond accordingly.

Obviously, we disagree with the position that the board members have a right to privacy in this matter.  We will continue to press our case with the goal of full disclosure.