Newton Mayor Setti Warren and Ted Hess-Mahan will engage in their first debate of the general election tonight (Tuesday) at 7 p.m. in the Druker Auditorium at the Newton Free Library, 330 Homer Street in Newton.
After tonight’s debate — or during the debate, if you feel so inclined — come back here and tell us what you thought.
I would like to thank the League of Women Voters of Newton and Newton Free Library for sponsoring this event, Jo-ann Berry of the Acton LWV for moderating, Mayor Warren, and most of all the audience and community members who submitted such insightful, thoughtful questions. I thought it was a spirited debate about the issues, with a lot of give and take which the format allowed for. I am very much looking forward to the next Mayoral debate at NewTV co-sponsored by the Newton-Needham Chamber of Commerce on Tuesday, October 29 at 7PM.
It was an interesting contrast between two people who really care about the city. Too bad there weren’t more people there. Nice job by the league and the library. Really covered a lot of ground.
I was unable to attend last night and was extremely disappointed that there was nothing in the TAB about it. There still isn’t at this early morning hour. This blog is the only item about the debate that I could find.
Whoever is running the Tab may need to move on to another city.
Greg, et al., in their invitation, the League of Women Voters of Newton indicated that last night’s Mayoral debate would be recorded and aired on the Community Channel of NewTV. Hopefully, the video will be available soon.
Speaking for the League of Women Voters of Newton, thanks for the positive feedback! We did record the event (with the help of lots of volunteers) and will be preparing it for NewTV’s community channel. We don’t yet have a schedule of when it will be shown, but will post it on our website and get the word out when we know. You can always email us at [email protected] for info in a few days. Our Voters’ Guide is also coming out on October 28th, available on our website and in hard copy at City Hall, the Library and the Senior Center.
Here’s the Globe’s coverage of the debate.
In a paragraph about OPEB, the Globe writes: “[Ted Hess-Mahan] said the city should phase in changes to health plans, and consider prorating benefits based on years of service, increasing premium share and raise age and years of service eligibility requirements.”
Is all of the age-based comments actually talking about health coverage? Are there any such age/years of service plans in place in any industry? Frankly, it feels discriminatory, and on it’s surface, discourages having children at a young age (ie, avoiding medical expense as much as possible)
Maybe I got the context wrong. Is this speaking to the plan’s treatment to retirees only?
Hoss, this week’s Newton TAB has my response to the Mayoral Question of the Week regarding unfunded liability for non-pension retiree benefits (aka OPEB). The question and my response are as follows:
In order to provide quality benefits and maintain fiscal sustainability, municipalities and states are going to have to do something to rein in extremely burdensome unfunded liabilities such as Newton’s. If we do not start today, our children and grandchildren will have to pay for it either through higher taxes or loss of services due to employee layoffs. No one wants to do this, but a Mayor has to make tough decisions about how to best serve the long term interests of the city.
I should add that Mayor Warren keeps claiming that he reduced OPEB unfunded liability by $40 million in the last two years. What he is not telling you is that in his first budget (FY11), he increased OPEB unfunded liability by over $107 million, and the liability is starting to inch back up, so he has actually cost the city nearly $70 million during his term in office. By contrast, Mayor Cohen in his last budget (FY10) reduced OPEB unfunded liability by almost $62 million.
Thank you Ted. The report gives the appropriate answers. (The recommendations impact retirees only (at future phase-ins), and mimic what other states are doing)
Thank you, Ted, for keeping the discussion on OPEB going. I am sure some people want to brush the issue under the rug.
@Kim, here’s a link to the TAB’s online story about the debate: http://www.wickedlocal.com/newton/news/x825424004/Newtons-candidates-for-mayor-square-off-in-debate
The TAB goes to print on Tuesday afternoon, which meant it was impossible for us to include the story in today’s print edition.
Ted, I liked how although you mentioned the possibility of funding the OPEB liabilities via overrides, you devoted more space to proposing recommendations to reducing OPEB liabilities. These recommendations include pursuing additional health plan cost savings, phasing in raised minimum age/service eligibility requirements, pro-rated benefits based on years of service, increased premium shares for future employees/retirees up to 50/50, and allocating resulting savings to an irrevocable OPEB trust.
I only hope that regardless of who wins Newton’s mayoral race, Newton’s next mayor will take the lead in pushing the decision makers in Boston to approve the OPEB reform bill. In addition, I hope that Newton’s next mayor will also push for a reduced health insurance subsidy and those savings can be used to fund Newton’s irrevocable OPEB trust.
Well said, Joshua.
Paul Levy, who led the Boston Harbor Cleanup as head of the MWRA and is the former CEO of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, hits the nail on the head in his most recent post on his blog, Not Running a Hospital. Paul also led Newton’s Blue Ribbon Commission, which paved the way for the work that the Citizens Advisory Group which looked at Newton’s finances did on the OPEB unfunded liability issue.
We owe it to the taxpayers and to municipal employees to be honest about this problem, because it is going to require a mutual sacrifice to solve it. Regrettably, there has been a lack of transparency. Indeed, the Programs & Services Committee was recently told that key information was withheld from the citizen advisory committee appointed by the Mayor to look at cost savings in the municipal employee health plans. The administration and the health plan administrators, the Tufts and Harvard health plans, should be providing this information so that the committee, which is comprised of health plan and health care experts, can do their work.
“Indeed, the Programs & Services Committee was recently told that key information was withheld from the citizen advisory committee appointed by the Mayor to look at cost savings in the municipal employee health plans.”
@Ted,
It’s an understatement to say that this is extremely troubling. Do you have inkling as to the nature of the information that was withheld?
The health care advisory committee was unable to obtain underlying data that was necessary for to do the analysis the committee was charged to do, particularly from the providers. What is most troubling to me is that the HCAC chairman indicated that the data has not been gathered, tracked or organized in a timely manner to allow the committee to complete its analysis.
Whats the point of having these committees if the city doesn’t prepare them with the proper information.
This has been copied from the minutes of the BOA Programs and Services subcommittee meeting of 9-18-2013, available on the BOA website:
“There was concern from the Committee that perhaps the City had not been cooperative in giving the HCAC the data and information they need. Dr. Freedman explained that it was not a matter of being uncooperative. The data has not been tracked in the way that would allow for easy access to it for their purposes. This has been more of a problem with the healthcare providers and he did not feel they were being purposely difficult. The problem seems to be in the gathering of the data in an organized way and in a timely manner. They have also received data that does not seem complete, or received differing versions and this raises the question of how data is gathered and maintained. Having said that, Dr. Freedman said the group is confident they have adequate data to produce a very valuable report and recommendations.”
Lisap, does this answer your question? I think that calling this a “lack of transparency” is quite misleading.
Thanks, Steve!
I believe that Ted Hess-Mahan ought to have checked this out before posting what was an inferred shot at the current administration. I know we’re in an election cycle, but fair’s fair.
To Ted Hess-Mahan’s credit, he uses social media very often such that his rare errors in positioning himself are for all to see. The Mayor rarely talks to the public in the way Ted does so we can’t judge his mistakes or know how often or on what level he makes them. One example of the Mayor’s positioning mistake was where in his website and press release he said Newton now has 100% green and renewable energy. Later at a debate he changed that position to say 100% green and renewable electricity. (How does that mistake happen?) Ted has done a good job of “using his words” and is very good at it.