Health benefits for Barnegat elected officials? Yea or Nay?

I sent this e-mail to the new mayor and the rest of the committee. I believe that this is just one of those entitlements that the committee just doesn't want to let go of. FYI, Barnegat Township Committee meetings have been cut to once a month, down from two. Do you think our elected officials work 35 hours a week? Hopefully Mayor McCabe will investigate this and have an answer for me and whoever else is interested at the Feb. 3rd meeting. The e-mail speaks for itself.

Dear Ms. Mayor,
 Now that township meetings have been cut to once a month, I believe that the taxpayer funded health benefit packages that are given to our part time elected officials should definitely be investigated. You know that as per law enacted in 2010 and also obvious to you in your campaign (by not taking health benefits) our elected officials are required to work 35 hours a week or more to be eligible for these benefits. Here is an excerpt from the Department of Community affairs bulletin FAQ: 

• General statutory principle:  Effective May 21, 2010, to be eligible for health benefits coverage under the SHBP, full-time appointive or elective officers are considered an “employee.”  In this case, the law defines an employee as (P.L.2010, c.2, s.9):

"(i) a full-time appointive or elective officer whose hours of work are fixed at 35 or more per week, a full-time employee of the State, or a full-time employee of an employer other than the State who appears on a regular payroll and receives a salary or wages for an average of the number of hours per week as prescribed by the governing body of the participating employer which number of hours worked shall be considered full-time, determined by resolution, and not less than 25" 

There are also questions on the Best Practices checklist that concern the cost of taxpayer funded health benefits, how did Barnegat Township answer these following questions?

• Does your municipality exclude from healthcare coverage part-time elected and appointed officials (less than 35 hours per week)?
• Does your municipality limit health benefits to full-time (35 or more hours weekly) employees (excluding elected and appointed officials)?
• Does your municipality conduct a monthly review of health benefit covered lives in an effort to delete employees, spouses or dependents who should no longer be receiving coverage?

Do you conduct a monthly review of health benefits for the elected officials to determine that they are in fact "working" 35 hours. If so, how is that determined? 

Ms. McCabe, are you taking tax payer funded health benefits this year, if not, why not? Also, could you please provide a report at the February 3rd committee meeting that gives the cost and the participating members of the committee that take the health benefits. Please include any money that is paid to those that "opt-out" of the plan. This is public information and should be readily available. This will save me the time and paperwork needed to OPRA this info.

I will be honest, this is a cost that the citizens of Barnegat should not have to be saddled with if they don't need to be. Please make this a priority this year. Either make the committee people prove that they work 35 hours a week or make them give up these expensive little perks. You are a lawyer, and you know the law. Please fulfill your moral obligation as mayor and make it happen.

I am writing this e-mail and copying all the committee members and Mr. Breeden. This way you will have plenty of time to research this and have a report on what your stance is on this. Hopefully, at the next meeting you will have some answers for the people of Barnegat that have been concerned by this blatant abuse of the law by some members of the committee.

I will also be posting a copy of this e-mail this on the Patch so that people who might be interested in this topic can show up at the Feb 3 meeting to hear what the committee has to say.

Thank you and please contact me by e-mail if you need anymore info, also a quick reply e-mail by each of the members of the committee on the receiving of this would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Howard Effron