Legislator Health Insurance

[Adam 377]

Just because i dont have enough stress, ive been trying to find out where i, law it states the County Legislators are entitled to Health/dental Coverage. To date i have found the following:

https://cms5.revize.com/revize/chemungcounty/DocumentCenter/document_center/County Legislature/Resolution No. 15-396 Enacted July 14, 2015.pdf?fbclid=IwAR3IkQJMkxYw7jfjXDXdj7i5kin7lZQ95XCNPVr02wOB4Npg3Cb-lN6L_rc    this indicates that the Legislative positions are indeed part time

 

resolution 92-038 no part time single rate employee hired by Chemung County after 1-1-1992 shall be offered or or receive health or dental insurance

 

"legislators are reporting to the NYS Retirement system based on a 90 day ROA (Report of Activities), which is submitted every 4 years displaying a 90 day window of an elected official’s activities." it seems that they are reporting that the meeting nights all last 4 hours. this is interesting since the videos are recorded and to date i have yet to see one lasting over two....

 

as of 2019:

Legislature payroll was 275,903

6 Legislators take a 1,500 buyout for not having insurance

8 that take the insurance cost the Taxpayers 139,000

One Legislator declines both the insurance and the buyout

this is on top of the regular members' salary of 16k and change, majority/minority leaders get 18k and change, Vice Chair is bit over 20k and Chair brings in around 40k.

 

As we have all seen the meetings rarely go over the 2-hour mark, at 3 meetings per month lets be generous and give them 10 hours of "official" trackable hours. now even though some have claimed they work more than full time hours, that does not negate the fact that, given current knowledge of resolutions, they are indeed part-time employees and NOT eligible for the benefits.

Im trying to find ways to get info on any resolutions since 1992, that make exceptions for Legislators. If anyone has ideas let me know, otherwise i think the Community at large really needs to be calling FOUL on this situation, perhaps the STate needs to be involved; particularly if hours of meetings are being inflated in reports.

 

[Adam 377]

as an aside, i did reach out to the Comptroller's office for guidance as well

 

[Ann 270]

25 minutes ago, Adam said:

Just because i dont have enough stress, ive been trying to find out where i, law it states the County Legislators are entitled to Health/dental Coverage. To date i have found the following:

https://cms5.revize.com/revize/chemungcounty/DocumentCenter/document_center/County Legislature/Resolution No. 15-396 Enacted July 14, 2015.pdf?fbclid=IwAR3IkQJMkxYw7jfjXDXdj7i5kin7lZQ95XCNPVr02wOB4Npg3Cb-lN6L_rc    this indicates that the Legislative positions are indeed part time

 

resolution 92-038 no part time single rate employee hired by Chemung County after 1-1-1992 shall be offered or or receive health or dental insurance

 

Perhaps the key words in this resolution are “hired by the County”.  Since Legislators are elected I wonder if there is something covering that type of employee.

[KarenK 384]

1 hour ago, Ann said:

Perhaps the key words in this resolution are “hired by the County”.  Since Legislators are elected I wonder if there is something covering that type of employee.

I had the same thought Ann, plus almost all of them are on special committees or oversee other committees. Would those meetings be included as part of their total legislative meetings?

[Adam 377]

6 hours ago, KarenK said:

I had the same thought Ann, plus almost all of them are on special committees or oversee other committees. Would those meetings be included as part of their total legislative meetings?

from what i gather committee/legislative meetings are the 3/month they attend, regardless, as it stands now, available info indicates no matter how many hours they work, the position is still classified as part time which should render them ineligible for the benefits. and if they did make resolution exempting themselves and still excluding other p/t employees, that info will be made public when found 

 

[Adam 377]

heard back from legislative clerk, apparently they get it by just inserting the statement that they will (paraphrasing_ in the Organizational Laws

[Kevin 342]

So "I am, because I say so"?  

[Adam 377]

2 hours ago, Kevin said:

So "I am, because I say so"?  

thats the jist