Date of Meeting: Monday, April 25, 2011
Location: Town Hall, 221 Main Street
Time: 6:48 PM – 7:25 PM
Members Present: James Stanton, Chairman, Kenneth Sydow; Roger Deal
Others Present: Dennis Pojani, Town Moderator; Stephen Madaus, Town Counsel; Nancy Colbert Puff, Town Administrator; Lori Esposito, Administrative Assistant to Board of Selectmen
Report of the Town Administrator:
Highway Dept Retiree: A retirement luncheon will be held on Friday, April 29 at the Town House for Steve White.
Tahanto General Contractor Bid Tabulation: The Building Committee opened general contractor bids on April 20. The list of bids received is attached.
Asian Longhorned Beetle Update: Attached is a response from the ALB program to the Board’s questions regarding treatment of the Town’s trees. The ALB program awaits the Board’s agreement to this treatment.
MIIA Health Insurance Proposal and Patient Protection and Affordable Health Care Act (PPACA): There are two proposals before the State Legislature that might have an impact on how municipalities provide health care coverage to their employees:
- One of these proposals was addressed at the time Representative Harold Naughton attended the Board’s recent meeting, which is the Governor’s proposal to mandate that municipalities either join the state’s Group Insurance Commission (GIC) or offer plans of equivalent actuarial valuation.
- The other is the House’s Health Insurance Reform Plan, which would allow “cities and towns the same power the State has to implement necessary cost savings changes in municipal health insurance plans outside of collective bargaining.”
The PPACA interim regulations have impacted our renewal policy in two ways:
(1) applies a prohibition on cost-sharing requirements for preventive services (e.g., $0 co-pay for annual exams; and
(2) allows coverage for “adult children” under 26 years of age.
As also discussed, our health insurance coverage is increasing in FY’12 by 10.03%. MIIA has created a new plan design (a GIC-comparable plan) that we could offer our employees that would represent a 4.77% overall increase while increasing co-pays for specialists, ER visits, hospital stays and prescriptions, and introducing a hospital tier system that is linked to co-pay amounts. This option would save the Town approximately $45,000 next year, while employees on the family plan would pay approximately $290 annually, or $25 per month less.
MIIA summarized this information with an analysis of potential savings/costs, should we join the GIC. Given that, cost sharing for retirees would have to be increased from the present 50/50 to the 70/30 split for existing employees, whether the Town would benefit under the GIC is entirely dependent upon the type of plan employees finally choose. According to MIIA, the most popular plan is the Harvard Pilgrim Independence Plan, under which we would end up paying more, overall.
An open enrollment period will take place for the month of May, as MIIA needs a minimum of 60 days to implement any plan change. We could propose a start date of July 1 but we would need to have an agreement in place by Monday, May 2. MIIA can also do an off-cycle implementation in August or September.
The Board will take the insurance matter under advisement.
Annual Town Meeting Warrant Review:
- A Special Town Meeting will be held on May 2 at 7:00 PM.
- Items 1 – 3 were reviewed; simple majority votes required.
- The Annual Town Meeting will commence at 7:15 PM.
- Items 1 – 13: routine, will be taken together.
- Items 14 and 15: The Personnel Board (meeting tonight) is to make recommendations.
- Items 16 – 18:
- Item 19: requires a two-thirds vote regarding the cell tower lease.
- Item 20: establish a retirement trust fund as required by the State; not currently being funded.
- Item 21: The Planning Board met and recommends approval of this item. It will require a two-thirds vote. Richard Baker said there was no opposition at their meeting.
- Item 22: will require a two-thirds vote.
- Item 28: Roadway Acceptance. Steve Madaus has a title report with one error being corrected. They should have clear title by Monday.
- Richard Baker said there will be a Planning Board meeting on Wednesday to evaluate whether the requirements have been met.
- Jim said the Board of Selectmen plans to pass over the item if requirements are not met.
- Mr. Baker asked if a vote will be needed to pass over the article. He feels residents will want it to be heard, regardless. Mr. Pojani said it would require a majority vote.
- Steve Madaus asked if the damage to the roadway had been repaired. Richard Baker said it had not. The Planning Board will make a vote on Wednesday based on whether the requirements have been met.
- The School Committee will make changes to budget numbers; reallocate figures, but bottom line will remain unchanged. Steve Madaus is in agreement with Dennis Pojani that the School Committee must vote on it previous to changes being made. As long as the bottom line number does not change, it should be okay.
Motion was made by Roger Deal to adjourn the meeting. The motion was seconded and voted all in favor. Meeting was adjourned at 7:25 PM.
Respectfully Submitted,
Lori Esposito, Administrative Assistant
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