Committee mulls Brightwaters' trustee benefits

The Village of Brightwaters' board, reacting to an issue from its last election cycle, has appointed an "independent" four-member committee to advise whether trustees should continue to receive health benefits from the village, officials said.

However, a decision by the mayor and trustees not to publicize names of committee members' led some residents at Tuesday's board meeting to question the group's impartiality.

The members were appointed in July by trustee Charles Fischer, who said he hand-picked four Brightwaters professionals with backgrounds in finance, accounting, management and research. "It's designed to analyze the issue of health care for trustees," said Fischer, who along with the mayor and other trustees belongs to the Citizens Party. "Why would you want names?" The committee will determine the short and long-term costs of the benefits as well as evaluate what benefits other villages and towns provide their boards, Fischer said.

The committee will make a recommendation to the board by year's end. Trustees will vote on whether to keep their health benefits, rather than put the matter to public vote, he said.

"We'll make the decision," said Fischer, who started receiving village-provided benefits two years ago when he lost his job in banking. "This is not a lot of money. We want to do the right thing."

Former trustee John Valdini, of the Common Good Party, criticized the process. "They don't need a secret committee to tell them the right thing to do."

Trustee health benefits currently cost the village about $72,000 a year, or $66 annually for the average taxpayer, officials said. Village clerk Christine O'Shea said trustees -- and all elected officials -- began receiving family coverage in 1997. In 2001, the board extended lifetime benefits to trustees serving 10 years or more.

Several residents at Tuesday's meeting questioned the board's decision not to publicize committee members' names.

"The committee, in my opinion, is designed to justify the continuation of the benefits," said Carmine Chiappetta, of Brightwaters, 50, a tax director. "How could it be independent if they selected them? We need to determine whether the residents of Brightwaters want to continue these benefits."

The board doesn't want to put the issue up to a general vote because of the "politics and emotions involved," Fischer said. "I want to make sure people understand the cost rather than the emotional side of things."

Mayor Joseph McNulty said he supports the decision to withhold the names. "They can do their job without being influenced or harassed," he said.