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Ben Dover,

Mr. Cushman’s projections over estimate total lifetime healthcare costs by several hundred thousand dollars because he chose to base his medicare projections on the blueCHiP plan cost as opposed to the Plan 65 cost which every fire retiree has received for the better part of two decades. Now we could argue whether he did this to intentionally mislead or he was just careless but the fact remains, he spread his false information across open meetings, the radio, newspapers, and social media. But by all means let’s use his spreadsheet over an actuary’s projection.

Even if Mr. Cushman’s numbers were accurate(which, again, they’re not) they represent one hypothetical employee hired today. If that employee had an identical career but was hired in 2021, or 2022, or 2030 the spreadsheet becomes meaningless as it pertains to actual dollar amounts. Where it wouldn’t be meaningless is the percentages. The day an employee is hired is the day you can ascribe a projected dollar amount to them. That is why GASB reports don’t have a section that accounts for the liabilities of people that you haven’t hired yet.

The fact is that this contract is a win for the city. The city’s own arbitration lawyer said so (despite Mr. Merolla impugning his reputation for having the audacity to state the obvious). It is slated to save the city nearly $39,000 PER NEW EMPLOYEE over the first 4 years of that employees career, by extending the 2nd, and 3rd class grade for private ranks. A first class private is slated to give back over $1300 in cash value each year, between holiday pay and the loss of sick time, and that number only increases for higher ranks. And creation of an OPEB trust which is FULLY FUNDED BY EMPLOYEE CONTRIBUTIONS and is slated to offset the retirement healthcare cost off all new hires by hundreds of thousands of dollars PER PERSON. ⅓ of the FD finally gets some certainty to what their retirement benefits will be. And both sides get to end a lengthy, tiresome, and expensive arbitration exercise that rewards nobody but lawyers.

The establishment of the OPEB trust should give residents of the city faith that major changes can be bargained in good faith. But despite the legal challenges this contract closes, certain members of the council seem determined to bring the city back to court, wasting more time and more money, as they once again try to legislate their way around state law.