Eastbayri.com

To the editor:

The health insurance has been available for a very long time and to pretend now that you did not know it was available and people were taking it just tells me that you are not paying attention, have your head buried in the sand or just don’t care.

Now that we have the problem that the city faces, forces things to change, the money is no longer available so we have to change the way we look at things. Should the benefits go away? Absolutely, but is that so different than past contracts.

I would be, as a matter of fact I am, much more concerned about transparency, i.e., taking the health insurance after very publicly saying you would not and talking about leading by example and then outright lying, these are bigger issues.

Talk about leading by example, did anyone go to or listen to the city council meeting on Feb. 7? Mike DiGioia spoke about this and had already made the decision to give up his health insurance and all the benefits. Bill Conley followed suit very quickly and they are not waiting until October their benefits will end at the end of February.

Yes, as of March 1 Mike DiGioia and Bill Conley will no longer have any monetary benefit from the city for serving on the council none what so ever. The way they gave up all the benefits, the stipend, the pension everything in the time of this financial crisis is real leadership. What most people are unaware of is that this is actually the second time these gentlemen have asked or told the city manager to take their benefits away, yes the second time, as usual with this council and this city manager the two in the minority were ignored when they asked to have their benefits removed months back.

The budget commission took away the health benefits, however, Conley and DiGioia have given back all their benefits not just what the budget commission took away. They are giving back the pension, the stipend and the health benefits and they did it months before the commission mandate of October 1. I congratulate Mike DiGioia and Bill Conley for being leaders and setting the examples of how things should be run and working for us in the mist of this dysfunctional council.

I listened and I waited to hear more council members join suit, however, I did not hear anyone from the majority follow suit. As a matter of fact I didn’t hear anything from them not even a thank you. On another note if you recall the benefits for the council were taken out of the budget in the budget that was proposed in September and then somehow the city manager found monies to add them back in when the budget was again presented in October. Does anyone recall the only two council members that voted against that budget? Mike DiGioia and Bill Conley voted against the budget that included health benefits for the council members.

The new city manager put the benefits back in the budget, I wonder who demanded that.

Robert Gagnon

83 Prescott Ave.