Panel's health benefits face ax

Article aims to cut selectmen's plan

By Richard Thompson, Globe Correspondent  |  September 14, 2008

More than half a century after Chiune Sugihara issued visas to thousands of Jewish families in Lithuania so they could travel to Japan as a path of survival during World War II, Brookline Town Meeting members will decide in November whether to declare a day of remembrance for the former Japanese consul general.

It's one of more than two dozen warrant articles that were submitted before the Sept. 4 deadline for the fall legislative session. Questions surrounding health insurance benefits for Brookline selectmen will join a pair of noise control bylaws near the top of the agenda for the meeting Nov. 18, followed by a few familiar amendments, such as establishing a mandatory bicycle registration program and allowing candidates from outside Brookline to apply for the fire chief's position.

More so than the resolution honoring Sugihara, a proposed amendment that would terminate health insurance benefits for the Board of Selectmen has created an early buzz among some Brookline political junkies while putting three selectmen who are enrolled in the program in the awkward position of commenting on a proposal that affects them.

Saying the cost of town-paid health insurance has "risen dramatically over the past decade," Roger Blood, a Town Meeting member and cochairman of the Brookline Coalition Against Unfair Taxation, said he filed the warrant article in part because the Override Study Committee in January identified healthcare benefits as "what you might call the number one budget buster."

"In one way, it's symbolic, but in another way, the selectmen are really central to exerting the political will to start addressing these broader financial issues," Blood said. "We felt that making this change would bring attention to the problem."

Eliminating the benefit could save the town as much as half a million dollars over time, Blood estimates; nearly $55,000 was set aside for selectmen health insurance in the town's budget for fiscal year 2009, compared to the town's $179 million in overall operating costs.

Money aside, "it also clears the way for them to be as objective as possible," he said, "because when you're receiving the same benefit which is significant to you that you're being asked to reform and reduce for others, it could be viewed by many people as a conflict."

Town Meeting member Seymour Ziskend weighed in with an alternative warrant article that proposes to terminate healthcare benefits that could be received by family members upon the death of any selectman who participates in the town's health insurance program.

Selectmen Robert Allen, Betsy Dewitt, and Jesse Mermell are all enrolled in the program, in which the town contributes 75 percent of the premium, about $5,700 each year, and includes permanent benefits after serving two terms and reaching the age of 55, according to deputy town administrator Sean Cronin.

Former selectman Michael Merrill and the family of Edward Novakoff, a former Brookline selectman who died in 2006, also receive the benefit; former selectman Gil Hoy will be eligible to enroll when he turns 55.

In lieu of healthcare benefits, selectmen would each receive $5,000 from the town, while the chairman of the board would receive $7,000, which in both cases is double the amount of money the positions currently receive as stipends.

Dewitt, approached about the warrant article after the selectmen's meeting last week, said she was puzzled to learn about the proposal and disagreed with its assessment that selectmen should not be considered town employees, a point that is considered central to the amendment.

"I'm in favor of whatever it takes to make sure that everybody has health insurance," she said, "and if the only way you can get it is through your employer, it's appropriate for it to be offered."

The meeting will also take up articles that would:

Ban leaf blowers each year between March 15 and May 15 and again between Sept. 15 and Nov. 15, in conjunction with an amendment submitted by the Noise Control Bylaw Review Committee that would institute a partial ban by establishing a program to ensure the devices fall within a certain decibel range that can be easily tested by town officials.

Require Brookline residents to register bicycles with the police department.

Lift the restriction on candidates for the position of fire chief that now permits only incumbent deputies and captains of the Brookline Fire Department to apply; a similar warrant article was approved by Town Meeting in 2003 but was turned down by the state Legislature.

Install recycling containers at all locations in Brookline that have a trash barrel.

Correction: Because of a reporting error in a Sept. 14 story about warrant articles before Brookline Town Meeting in November, the amount that Town Meeting member Roger Blood estimates Brookline could save by eliminating health insurance benefits for selectmen was misstated. Blood estimates the savings could amount to as much as $500,000 over time per selectman.