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When a firefight erupts between the mayor and city council of Niagara Falls, it barely qualifies as news anymore.
The latest skirmish, sprouting from the city's self-insured health care plan for its union employees, had wizened City Hall watchers in the media and the coffee shops reaching deep into the cliche bag for "business as usual."
The cynicism and apathy are certainly understandable, particularly when Mayor Irene Elia and Councilman Vince Anello, both veterans of past dust-ups, stand toe-to-toe at center ring.
But this time around, there's a paper trail that Elia and her working majority on City Council -- Chairwoman Fran Iusi and members Paul Dyster and Candra Thomason -- will have a tough time explaining away as partisan bickering. And that trail contains dates and numbers that call the reasoning of the administration into serious question:
Weeks later, the city finalized its 2002 spending plan, a budget that projected $668.40 for each worker in its Nova family plan, so called after the company that administers the system.
"To knowingly underfund the budget is criminal," said Anello, who won re-election to the council in November after a two-year absence. He was sworn in Jan. 1. "The excuse I got from (City Administrator) Al Joseph was that the process was underway, and it was too late to stop it. But when they were late with the budget, they said the deadlines in the charter were just guidelines. Which is it?"
And last week -- apparently unbothered by Herroner's usurpation of legislative authority -- Iusi and Dyster changed their votes and, along with Thomason, approved hiring Roemer, Wallens & Mineaux.
But while workers were told that the Nova rate had risen to $1,069.64 per month for family coverage and $483.07 for single workers, effective Jan. 1, the city's own numbers don't bear that out. According to the city's insurance records, Niagara Falls was billed a top rate of $668.40 for employees covered by the Nova family plan in January and charged $290.40 for single workers. The rate fluctuates based on the amount of claims filed, and rose to $730 in February. The monthly deductions would remain in place even if billing rates remain below the estimates provided to the city.
Employees could avoid the deduction if they switched to one of the other insurance options by last Friday. One longtime employee said he switched to the pricier Blue Cross and Blue Shield, a move that ultimately will cost the city at least an extra $100 per month, based on actual billing rates.
"How is that saving the city money?" he asked. "Nobody has been able to explain that to me."
"At that particular time, the City was strongly pushing to get employees to leave the BC/BS plan and take Nova," Restaino wrote.
"At that time there was no intention to put a cap on the City Health Care Plan," Martino added.
During two 1998 hearings before the state Public Employment Relations board, former Human Resources Director David Fabrizzio also said the cap applied only to those workers enrolled in Blue Cross and Blue Shield.
Mann's Benefits Management Group took over from Nova as the city's insurance consultant last year, though Nova still administers the plan. In addition to its monthly fee, the consultant receives a 3 percent commission for each employee enrolled in any plan EXCEPT the Nova option.
"This whole argument is based on that ($1,069.64) estimate," said a union source close to negotiations with the city. "When you've got someone financially benefiting from information providing that information, don't you question that information?"
"The motive is to force people out of the Nova plan," Anello said. "If that's the motivation, you have to get your numbers straight. In January, they were still trying to talk people into getting into Nova."
"They say, we won't talk about health care, but they never brought it up," the union source said. "And when we offered to help them save money and help us at the same time, they turned it down."
The offer in question, which would have increased employee co-pays for prescription drugs, would have put an extra $210,000 in the plan. Union negotiators wanted $98,000 returned in the form of enhanced dental coverage, which would have left the city with a net savings of $112,000. Union critics have also blasted the coverage afforded city employees as a "Cadillac plan," since most private-sector employees contribute to their own health care options.
"We have contributed to our coverage by forgoing raises or agreeing to raises below the increase in cost of living," the union source said. "I figured out that I've put in $39,000 over the years."
In all, Niagara Falls will pay $276,355.32 this year for health coverage for its 38 exempt employees, based on January, 2002 rates.
At least another $3.8 million will be spent to cover retired city employees. Of that total, nearly one-tenth will go to cover retired exempt employees, ranging from longtime police and fire chiefs and department heads to short-time patronage hires and officials of the long-dormant Urban Renewal Agency.
"We're bound by the law unless the law is changed," Anello said of providing full lifetime coverage to part-time and short-term exempt employees. "Health care has to be addressed for all employees."
Anello said any changes have to come through negotiation, rather than edicts from City Hall and inevitably resulting litigation.
"None of this changes the fact that health care is expensive, and getting more expensive, or that we have to go to the table with the unions," Anello said. "But there's a process involved."
Both sides say they want to avoid the city falling from the brink of financial disaster into insolvency, a plunge which could stem from either spiraling health care costs or litigation. Under a state control board, all union agreements with the city could be voided, leading to a loss of jobs and benefits.
A union source said the city's workers would willingly participate in the process to rectify the mess and hope to avoid litigation. But a March 1 "talking points" memo sent from Joseph to Dyster and copied to Iusi underscored the administration's condescending approach.
"We are trying to protect employees from themselves," Joseph wrote. "Tough love (just like you do with your children)."
| Niagara Falls Reporter | www.niagarafallsreporter.com | March 12 2002 |