Legislature to review retirement benefits for managers
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MAYVILLE - County officials are considering upgrading a local law that would permit managers to get the same retirement benefits as union employees.
During the legislature's September meeting, an amendment had been proposed to a local law regarding paid health insurance at retirement.
The changes were delayed and are expected to be discussed at the October meeting later this month.
During a September committee meeting, Human Resources Director Deborah Makowski said that outside of part-time staff, every county employee group gets some level of retirement benefit that takes sick time and/or years of service and calculates them to provide health insurance into retirement.
According to Makowski, managers that are not part of a union have had their years of service adjusted as the collective bargaining units have increased, but not sick time. "They don’t have a sick time conversion that increases that calculation for continued coverage into retirement," she said.
Because of this, a proposal was brought forth to adjust a local law to address this. The proposed change would require retiring managers to receive the same paid health insurance coverage to match the benefit given to any county union collective bargaining unit agreement.
During the full September legislature meeting, Erica Bens spoke out in favor of the local law changes.
"A lot of folks in the public assume that managers automatically get the best overall benefits package, but that’s not true. Right here in Chautauqua County, union employees receive better retirement health insurance benefits than the managers who oversee them," she said. "We are not asking for special treatment. In the past, managers used to get more, and we’re not asking for that anymore. We’re just asking for the exact same fair deal that our highest union benefit offers."
According to Bens, without making this change, some qualified individuals will avoid becoming managers simply because they don't want to give up the retirement benefits afforded to union members.
Others have left management positions, only to return to a union position because of the retirement benefits. "Bringing manager retirement coverage up to match our union standards is just fair and it honors long careers in public service and keeps strong leaders working for our community," Bens said.
When the time came to vote on the changes, Legislator Fred Johnson, R-Westfield, requested the local law be tabled until October. "Our chief financial officer, Kitty (Lyons), gave us some very interesting numbers on Friday, shortly after the Audit and Control meeting. Given the import of those numbers, I think it should go back to committee," he said.
The request to table the local law was unanimously approved.
The next regular Audit and Control Committee meeting is Oct. 22 and the next full legislature meeting will take place Oct. 28.