SOUTH PORTLAND — South Portland city councilors on Monday had an
opinion from one attorney saying they are probably violating the city charter,
and one from another saying they probably aren't. But after 90 minutes of
vigorous debate, there was no probably about the opinion of outgoing Mayor
Rosemarie De Angelis.
She called taxpayer funding of health insurance
for city councilors "unfair, unequal and unethical."
The practice has been a perennial hot potato in
South Portland, given its supposed violation of the charter, which fixes
councilor compensation at $3,000 annually, with no mention of ancillary
benefits.
Although the council reached no consensus on the
question Monday, De Angelis vowed to bring the issue to a head, saying she will
seek to either open a Charter Commission review of councilor pay, or else force
her peers to reauthorize the 1977 order that extended Blue Cross/Blue Shield
coverage to the City Council.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the council split in its
deliberations Monday 4-3, with those who take the benefit – Maxine Beecher, Tom
Blake, Tom Coward and Alan Hughes – in favor of continuing the practice, and
those who don't – Alan Livingston and Mayor-elect Patti Smith – seeming more
sympathetic to De Angelis' view.
The swing vote could be new Councilor Gerald
Jalbert, who will be sworn in to office Dec. 5. Jalbert replaces Hughes on the
board and has already said he will decline health care coverage from the city.
However, while he will not take advantage of it himself, Jalbert has not said
how he feels about others taking advantage of the benefit. His most revealing
comment, made after Monday's council workshop, was to recall his time on the
campaign trail this fall, reporting that many residents were
"shocked" at "how little" he stood to gain, if
elected.
The prevailing opinion of most residents,
according to Jalbert, Blake and Coward, is that South Portland city councilors
are woefully underpaid, even with a health insurance plan valued at more than
$14,000 per year for family coverage.
HISTORY LESSON
When the city charter was adopted in 1963, it
stipulated, "The annual compensation of Councilmen shall be $600."
The pay rate was bumped to $1,000 by the state Legislature in 1965, and then by
local voters to $1,500 in 1971 and $3,000 in 1986, where it's remained ever
since. However, in 1977 the City Council voted to take advantage of a 1969
change in Maine law that broadened the definition of "employee" to
elected and appointed officials, for purposes of group health insurance
policies. The council at that time voted itself full health insurance coverage
and the benefit has been part of every annual budget ever since.
For FY 2012, the city set aside more than
$98,000 for the benefit.
“That could turn back on all of our street
lights,” said De Angelis, referring to the council’s unanimous vote last week
to save $22,000 by snuffing 184 lights. “That could fund the last three
contracts we just negotiated,” she added, pointing to pay raises contained in
recently approved contracts with firefighters and police officers.
“There’s a lot of things that money could buy
that serve a lot more people than the seven sitting up in front of us tonight,”
said De Angelis. “I don’t take it because I couldn’t sleep at night.”
“It was OK when you were on the board before,”
said Beecher, raising her voice for the first time in recent memory. “For three
years you took it, and you never brought it up to take it away then.”
“Maxine, I’ve addressed that,” said De Angelis.
“I said it in three different meetings, because you brought it up in three
different meetings, so I’ll say it again. You’re absolutely right, Councilor
Beecher, I took it for three years. But when the issue was raised, and the
ethical question came forward, I did not take it again. OK? That’s my answer.”
De Angelis said she had not known of the health
benefit when she first ran for office in 2003, and simply accepted what was put
in front of her when she won. After losing at the polls in 2006, De Angelis ran
again in 2009, shortly after a series of intensive public meetings that summer
centered on councilor compensation.
However, although De Angelis says she was simply
swayed by the logic presented by citizens at those sessions, her conversion may
not have been as cut-and-dried as all that. Although not mentioned Monday, soon
after resuming office De Angelis asked for a payout in lieu of accepting the
insurance package a second time.
In a Jan. 28, 2010 memo, the city’s attorney,
Sally Daggett, wrote that councilors, though deemed employees for purposes of
obtaining health insurance, cannot take advantage of a personnel policy that
allows employees who decline coverage to take a cash buyout equal to one-half
of what the city would otherwise pay in annual premiums.
“Such differing definitions are perfectly
lawful,” wrote Daggett, referencing a January 2009 memo in which she said
nothing in either the charter or Maine law “expressly prohibits” councilors
from declaring themselves employees for purposes of getting insurance
coverage.
In that 2009 letter, Daggett also wrote that
while the charter fixes councilor compensation at $3,000, nothing says that pay
is the “total” value of all compensation, “exclusive of any other benefits.”
Maine’s Supreme Court can be relied upon to back
that interpretation, Daggett wrote, because voters made no effort to spike
insurance coverage for councilors when voting in 1986 to hike their stipends.
SECOND OPINION
This time around, however, when De Angelis asked
to have the issue readdressed, City Manager Jim Gailey chose to get a second
opinion, rather than have Daggett retrace her rhetorical ground.
“It’s like me writing a paper on whether my boss
should have a raise,” said Gailey, intimating that Daggett may have a conflict
of interest. Daggett’s 2009 opinion that councilors should not lose health
insurance coverage was written just two weeks after she was hired, Gailey
pointed out.
This time around, Gailey went to attorney
William Plouffe, primarily because the city does not retain his firm,
DrummondWoodsum, for any other matters.
Plouffe said in a Nov. 21 memo that giving
councilors health insurance coverage “does not comply with the [$3,000]
compensation limit” in the charter. However, given a dearth of relevant case
law, Plouffe hedged by adding “the answer is not free from doubt.”
“Getting a lawyer’s opinion isn’t worth too
much,” said Highland Avenue resident Stanley Cox. “Lawyers have their
livelihood arguing among themselves.”
Cox said it was clear to him that the 1977
council “sidestepped” the charter to “vote themselves a raise.”
“I feel it’s compensation under the table,” he
said.
However, Cox seemed less concerned about the
insurance premium than the fact that some take advantage of the benefit while
others do not. Effectively, that means one councilor might earn more than
$17,000 for his or her service, while another gets just $3,000.
Gary Crosby, who has run for council more than
once, rose from his place beside Cox in the audience to chime in.
“I’m not opposed to the total amount of money so
much as the inequity,” he said.
Not only do some councilors not take the health
benefit, but also members of other boards in committees don’t even have the
option, said Crosby.
Marilyn Reilly, credited with asking De Angelis
to resurrect the issue, pointed to another seeming inequity. Part-time
employees in South Portland must work at least 24 hours per week before the
city will cover their insurance premiums, and even then they still have to pay
50 percent out of pocket. Meanwhile, nothing compels the elected official who
gets full coverage to log a minimum number of hours.
“Does your heart and the pit of your stomach say
that this is moral behavior toward city employees?” she asked.
REBUTTAL
Still, there
was a spirited defense staged for the status quo.
“I didn’t run for council to get health
insurance, but it’s what enables me to actually to do the job,” said Coward.
The insurance coverage, said Coward, gives him a
“cushion” of time he can devote to city business, because, without it, he’d
have to spend his time in trying to earn enough money to buy health insurance
in the marketplace.
“In the absence of health insurance, the people
who can run for council are either retired people, independently wealthy, or
else work for employers who provide health insurance and are very forgiving
about their employees extracurricular activities,” said Coward. “What it cuts
out is people like me – small entrepreneurs who run independent businesses and
cannot otherwise afford to serve on the council.”
“We are a complex community and we need quality
people,” agreed Blake. “By removing or grossly reducing compensation, I feel
certain we will reduce the quality [of candidates for office], which is already
a problem, and I feel it has the potential to reduce the quality.”
Blake suggested the creation of a “blue-ribbon
commission” to study the issue, but no one else seemed interested in that idea.
The best that could be had was a general agreement, apparently grudging on some
parts, to debate the topic again at some future workshop session.
One issue that could be on the table at that
time is taking the compensation question to a referendum vote, with an eye to
offering councilors a lump sum of money with which to shop around for their own
insurance coverage. That, at least, might free taxpayers from spiraling health
care costs.
“I don’t think anyone in the ’70s ever thought
health insurance would ever get this crazy,” said Smith, “and, in the next few
years, it’s going to go through the roof.”
Coward countered that while he’s willing to
debate the issue further, he felt “we’ve all laid out our positions,” making
additional talks largely irrelevant, and any thoughts of raising a Charter
Commission untenable.
“I’m not getting a sense that this is a burning
issue with anyone except a few folks and a couple of councilors,” he said.
A closer look
What will each South Portland city councilor cost the taxpayer in FY 2012?
Stipend Health care Total
Tom Blake $3,000 $14,418 $17,418
Tom Coward $3,000 $14,418 $17,418
Maxine Beecher $3,000 $8,559 $11,559
Rosemarie De Angelis $3,000 $0 $3,000
Gerald Jalbert* $3,000 $0 $3,000
Alan Livingston $3,000 $0 $3,000
Patti Smith $3,000 $0 $3,000
*Jalbert, who will be sworn in Dec. 5, has said he will not take the health benefit.
A closer look
How councilors are compensated in Maine's largest cities
Stipend Healthcare Retirement Other
Auburn $1,800 (Mayor $4,000) No No None
Bangor $2,000 (Chair $2,500) No No Life Ins. (at cost)
Lewiston $3,180 No Yes (2.9% match) None
Portland $5,812 Yes (100% self; 47% family) Yes (4.4-7.5% match) Life Ins./Dental (at cost)
South Portland $3,000 Yes (100%) No None
Westbrook $3,000 (Pres. $3,500) Yes (at cost) No None
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