The Fire Department’s Fire Prevention Officer Brian Schneider asked Southwick’s residents to support the town being allowed to negotiate a higher contribution to the town employees’ health insurance during the Special Town Meeting held on Jan. 13. The residents approved the article.
Reminder Publishing photo by Cliff Clark
SOUTHWICK — Following the lead of nearly every municipality in the state, town employees will soon be able to negotiate paying less for their health insurance premium after Special Town Meeting approved a request by the Select Board for the town to pay more than the state minimum of 50%.
“I’m very happy,” said Chief Administrative Officer Nicole Parker on Jan. 14 after the Jan. 13 meeting at Southwick Regional School that was attended by over 200 residents.
“This is a testament to our town being so well informed and vested in our community and public safety,” she said, referring to not only approving adjusting the health insurance premium split but also using $220,000 in free cash to finish rebuilding the public safety radio system.
During the debate on Article 1, most of those who spoke supported it, but there were a few who weren’t comfortable with not being able to establish a percentage of what the town might pay toward an employees’ premium, including Linda Bathel of Lexington Circle.
“Is it prudent or responsible to vote for something a percentage increase that is undefined? If you would come in and say you would like to increase by 5%, OK, we know what we’re getting into,” she said, which Select Board member Doug Moglin addressed.
“Just to clarify, and town counsel can check me on this, but Mass General Law doesn’t provide for us the ability in this warrant article to do that. So the only thing we can do is remove the cap from 50% … I’m not going to say trust me because you’ve got a Finance Committee and a Select Board here that’s going to have to negotiate those contracts with your town employees and your unions,” he said.
He added the “ultimate check and balance” are on the residents who approve the budget at the Annual Town Meeting.
Deb Patryn of Saw Mill Park had a similar concern to Bathel’s about the percentage split, but believed if the residents approved the article, there would be no limit on the town’s contribution.
“It sounds like, well, if we say yes tonight, then that gives you free rein to go anywhere up to 100%, you could go to 70%, you could go to 55%, you could go to 80%. There’s no cap on the money that we are agreeing to give you at this point,” she said, which Gale responded to.
“We’re not going to do it. It has to go through negotiation and you have a prudent, experienced board up here that does those negotiations. The unions and the union reps are experienced and smart enough not to ask for 100% … we would get nowhere. That would be fiscally irresponsible to do so,” she said.
Asking for residents’ support were Jessica Thornton, Fire Department employees Brian Schneider and Jessica Bishop, and former Select Board member Jason Perron spoke.
“This article was not about special treatment. It is about workforce stability, service reliability, making fiscally responsible decisions to help control long term costs rather than compound them,” Perron said.
Fire Prevention Officer Brian Scheinder, who with the support of over 60 town employees, asked for the meeting to have residents vote on the issue last September, spoke.
“We are not asking for a certain percentage, we are asking for a chance to negotiate the percent. We need you all to vote to allow that to happen. That’s the law and that’s what we’re asking for is the chance,” he said.
Thornton believed it was important that the town offer fair and competitive compensation packages to all its employees.
Randy Wynglarz of Granville Road and a town employee of 32 years closed the debate.
“It’s pretty bad. Sixteen hundred bucks a month. I pay more for health care than to live here. We can’t get anybody to stay. All the good people left, and we’re getting some good people but no one wants to stay,” he said.
The question was called and, Town Moderator Celeste St. Jacques called for a voice vote.
There were clearly more yeas than nays and the article passed.
Article 2, which would allow the town to negotiate a better thanan 50% split on the health insurance premiums for town’s 59 retirees was also approved after a short debate which featured some opposition.
Perry Schwarzer of Crystal Drive pointed out that Article 2 is just for “people who worked for the town” and was not as an incentive to work for the town.
“This has nothing to do with that. I encourage people not to vote for this because it really is, you know … nobody’s giving me a raise today or giving me more money. I feel bad for people in the world. But anyway, I hope people vote no for this,” he said.
St. Jacques called for voice vote, and there were significantly more yeas than nays, even more than on Article 1.
Article 3 asking for $220,000 to finish the town’s public safety radio system. That was passed unanimously, as was Article 4, which was minor amendment to the town’s zoning bylaws.
Article 5, asking for the town to adopt a temporary moratorium on building large-scale solar projects or installing battery energy storage systems, was also approved unanimously.
