For retired town workers
One more chance to get old benefits



GUILDERLAND — It’s the last call for town workers.

Retiring employees only have one more chance to receive Medicare reimbursement coverage before the town abandons its long-standing practice, according to the unanimous town board vote Tuesday night. The cutoff date will be extended to Aug. 1 2007.

The original cutoff date was on Jan. 1, 2007.

The town was contacted by several current and retired employees last week after The Enterprise ran a front-page story, "Cuts Sting: Guilderland scales back retirement benefits."
"If there are employees who want to retire and still get these benefits, a solution can be reached," Supervisor Kenneth Runion told The Enterprise Friday, the day after the story was published. He added, "You can count on one hand the number of employees ready to retire"and count on the other hand the number of employees who are close to 20 years of service."
In the effort to give "a handful" of employees the option to get Medicare reimbursements, the town has amended the current employee handbook, according to Runion, as a "good gesture" by the board.

However, the 2007 Medicare reimbursement rates will be capped, even for those currently retired.

The current reimbursement rate is $93.50 per month, or $1,120 annually.
Councilman David Bosworth, who is also the town’s Democratic chair and Albany County’s Democratic co-chair, called reimbursement cuts, "A cost-cutting measure"for the town."

According to the supervisor, Guilderland is currently spending a total of $1.4 million in insurance costs for its employees. Out of that number, approximately $272,000 is spent on retirement health insurance, Runion said.

The information about the reimbursement changes was included in a new employee handbook. Runion told The Enterprise workers had to sign an acknowledgment form when they received the manuals, and that the town has a list on file.
"One of the reasons why we updated the handbook was that the insurance companies were asking to have updated manuals and to have the employees sign for them," Runion said at the meeting. "So we’re now in compliance."

Runion said yesterday that, although the Medicare reimbursements do increase, they do not fluctuate and increase dramatically like insurance premium costs, which are often linked to ever-rising prescription drug cost.

Several retired and current workers in town were not aware of the new changes until contacted by The Enterprise.
The town did hold public workshops when revamping the employee handbooks last year, said Runion, but that only "maybe a few" residents attended them. As for employees not knowing about the changes, Runion said that they signed for their new handbooks and "should have been aware."
"I don’t think everybody reads every section of the handbook," he said. "Unfortunately, a lot of times, people will only read the sections that affect them at that time"Some of them may not have been looking at retirement."
As a result, Runion said he has received "some calls" from retirees who were confused about what was happening to their benefits. He also said that one-half dozen or fewer employees are close enough to retirement to make the new deadline, but "that only one employee has decided to take advantage of the extension so far."
"Many of our retirees no longer live in the area and have already received their current reimbursements, so we didn’t immediately send out notifications," he said, adding that, if the retirement reimbursements were cut completely, the town would have notified people earlier.

However, some retirees last week said they still would have liked to have been notified earlier.

Other business

In other business, the town board unanimously:

— Listened to a presentation on the amount of storm-water management program and made a motion to sign and file the annual report;

—Appointed Jennifer Czerwonka as a full-time paramedic from the Albany County Civil Service list, effective May 6;

— Approved a change in status of Cory Nichols from acting paramedic supervisor to permanent paramedic supervisor, effective May 4;
— Authorized the supervisor to sign a contract with the Capital District Transportation Committee for the linkage study of the Railroad Avenue Corridor. The study cost $25,000 to complete with Guilderland allocating $1,250 for the project and both Albany County and the town of Colonie allocating $2,500 each. The remaining amount is being paid for by a grant from the Capital District Transportation Committee. According to Donald Csaposs, the town’s grant writer and economic development chairman, the study "should be wrapped up by the end of the year; and

— Approved three proposed settlements recommended by the town’s assessor.