Aug. 1 deadline looms for WSD employee benefits

By Patricia Bogumil

Editor

Employment contracts sought under the state Open Records Law for full-time employees in the Town of Waterford Sanitary District were released July 2 to former WSD Commissioner Dan Dickinson, who made the request last month.

He is currently a candidate in a recall election set for Aug. 14 to unseat Commissioner Bill Gerard from the WSD Board.

After a review of the material, Dickinson responded July 4 by firing off an open letter to WSD commissioners asking that they meet a deadline requiring them to give notice by Aug. 1 of an intent to modify the Administrator’s contract, or the contract will automatically renew for another year.

By giving that notice, WSD has an opportunity to “correct a flawed contract that gives Cadillac personal retirement savings accounts and Cadillac insurance benefits” that are driving up WSD’s user rates, Dickinson explained via email.

Dickinson asks commissioners to place the Aug. 1 deadline notice on their July 11 meeting agenda.

Dickinson said that renewing the Administrator’s contract by failing to act puts “upward pressure on WSD rates, and runs contrary to the efforts of virtually every other municipality’s efforts to reduce their internal costs,” Dickinson said.

According to the released contracts, Administrator Debbie Nelson will earn a salary of $53,617 in 2012. Operations Superintendent Norm Nelson earns a basic wage rate of $30 per hour for a 40-hour workweek ($62,400 base annual salary), plus overtime and holiday/Sunday pay.

No contract was provided for Operations Assistant Jerry Ignatowski, presumably because one does not exist. According to WSD minutes from May 2011, Ignatowski was hired for $21 per hour for a 40-hour workweek ($43,680 base annual salary).

The employee wages are not mentioned as a concern in Dickinson’s open letter to the WSD Board.

Instead, he calls for a review of the costs of insurance benefits provided for by United Healthcare, saying it appears WSD is paying two to three times more for those insurance benefits than necessary.

He also targets the amounts that WSD pays into personal retirement accounts set up for the full-time employees.

“For just three full-time employees (annually), personal retirement payments exceed $60,000, plus over $52,000 for insurance benefits,” Dickinson said.

The two released contracts call for WSD to contribute retirement benefits of 14 percent of total base hourly pay for Debbie Nelson ($7,506) and Norm Nelson ($8,736).

But the contracts also modify that maximum 14 percent contribution with additional wording that says “or the maximum allowable amount under the Plan, whichever is greater.”

That additional wording refers to the maximum allowable as defined by the IRS, explained WSD Commissioner Donna Block. For persons over 50 years of age, the maximum allowed is $22,000. For those under age 50, it is $16,500.

For 2012, the WSD 2012 budget calls for $22,000 to be paid into the retirement plan of Debbie Nelson. Another $38,500 is budgeted this year for retirement plans for Norm Nelson ($16,500) and Jerry Ignatowski ($22,000).

These retirement funds are paid over and above what each employee earns in wages.

Dickinson said he has never seen employee agreements as flawed as these.

“This willy-nilly irresponsible process must be corrected immediately, and in the open meeting environment,” he added.

Block said she has requested that employee benefit packages be placed on an upcoming meeting agenda and expects that to happen. Block said she will know how her request has been handled by Monday, July 9, when she receives her packet for the July 11 WSD commissioners meeting.