Brentwood City Hall Silent On Health Insurance Available to Mayor and Some Aldermen

Information about the city-paid health insurance available to Brentwood’s elected officials has slammed shut, with Patch being directed by City Administrator Bola Akande to fill out a formal request for access to public records through the Sunshine Law.

The Sunshine Law requires public governmental bodies to open their meetings and records to the public.

At Akande’s request, Patch initially emailed her its questions about the city’s practice of providing free health insurance to its part-time officials.  None were answered.

Here are some of the questions we asked:

• When did the city first realize it would not be able to provide new aldermen with insurance?
• When and how were they informed?
• Because this (health insurance) involves public funds, was there an internal vote?
• How is the city compensating new alderman for the loss of the benefit?
• What is being done to resolve this issue?

Akande said in an email that the city received multiple sunshine requests for information and that  “research is underway.”

Patch responded with another email and asked Akande what questions could she answer and what other media were seeking information.

“I do not have a response to any of the questions. If you want to submit your request, attached is the form,” Akande replied.

Patch pressed Akande again in another email and asked if she and her office had been given any specific instructions with regard to media inquiry about health insurance supplied to its elected officials.

Her response: “I don’t understand the question.”

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