NHRSTA Minutes
June 18, 2009
The meeting was called to order by Chairman Michael Hureau at 6:30 p.m. It was held at the Red Blazer in Concord and attended by 76 people including 56 members.
Ernest Loomis led the Pledge of Allegiance. A moment of silence was observed for our departed members. Special mention was made of most recently departed board member Retired Captain Thomas Winn who passed away in May of this year.
In the interest of expediting the agenda, Chairman Hureau introduced speakers from Anthem and the Local Government Center . The Anthem spokesperson outlined the changes to the under age 65 retiree health insurance plan that will take effect July 1, 2009, primarily changing some co-pay amounts and service visits. The Local Government Center that administers the pharmacy program for the state covered the changes to the Caremark and pharmacy programs including the increased co-pay for prescription drugs and the out of pocket expense changes. Many of these changes have been identified and retirees notified by mail. Several questions were posed to the speakers by those in attendance and appeared to be satisfactorily answered.
A motion was made and seconded to approve the Secretary’s report and the Treasurer’s Report. The membership voted to approve the reports as written and distributed.
The Legislative Committee (Ernest Loomis, Paul O’Leary, Mark Furlone and Peter Hilchey) updated the membership on their activities. Ernest Loomis briefed those in attendance with a chronological synopsis of the effort to reduce to a reasonable amount the retirees under age 65 contribution towards the state provided health insurance. He noted that the State Police had been orally promised for years that their health insurance in retirement would be paid by the state in exchange for lower or in some cases no pay raises. He outlined Governor Lynch’s budget address, “ retirees older than age 65 currently pay about $100 a month to the federal government for Medicare. Younger retirees pay nothing for their state health plan. In fairness, older retirees should not pay more than younger retirees. We will begin charging premiums to younger retirees similar to those that older retirees already pay.” The Legislative Committee met with the Governor on behalf of the association and came away from the meeting with the opinion that our direction should be to minimize the cost to retirees, especially after the house passed legislation requiring the retiree to pay 11.5% of their retirement benefit as the retiree’s contribution for health insurance. The committee decided to draft a legislative amendment proposing the retiree contribution be no more than the active employee’s pay or $65.00 a month to cover both the retiree and qualified spouse. (The Senate approved $65.00 a month for each retiree and $65.00 a month for the qualified spouse.) The Legislative Committee, assisted by Retired Portsmouth Fire Department and former NH Retirement System Board member Lt. Joseph Dow also was instrumental in facilitating a proposal to continue the supplemental allowance that all retirees received last year to include a 1.5% COLA, a one time check for $1,000 for those retirees or a beneficiary of a retiree whose annual retirement allowance is based on at least 15 years of service and is $20,000 or less and a one time $500 check for any retiree or beneficiary of a retiree who retired prior to January 1, 1993. Paul O’Leary spoke of the support given to the Legislative Committee by Senate President Sylvia Larsen. The membership showed their approval for the hard work and dedication of the Legislative Committee.
The Chairman called for the nominating committee report. Joseph Broderick responded with a list of replacement officers whose term would expire 6-1-2011; Donald Carlson, Herbert Frink and David Kelley. Nominating committee member Joseph Broderick moved that the Secretary cast one ballot for slate of officers. The ballot was cast by the Secretary, seconded and voted by voice vote of the membership in attendance approving the slate of officers.
A motion to adjourn was approved.
The Executive Board met after the meeting. Those in attendance were Donald Carlson, Herbert Frink, Peter Hilchey, David Kelley and Roland Lamy. The Board elected David Kelley as Chairman. David Kelley appointed Michael Hureau to fill the post vacated by Thomas Winn in accordance with the by-laws. The Board also elected Peter Hilchey as 1st Vice Chairman and Mike Hureau as 2nd Vice Chairman. The Board also appointed Kathleen Kimball as Secretary and Richard Campbell as Treasurer.
Respectfully submitted,
Richard J Campbell, Jr.
Secretary-Treasurer