April 12, 2013 - Southbridge Evening News
April 12, 2013 - Southbridge Evening News
April 12, 2013 - Southbridge Evening News
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14 SPENCER NEW LEADER • Friday, <strong>April</strong> <strong>12</strong>, <strong>2013</strong><br />
Selectmen order schools to pay health insurance for retired super<br />
LAWSUIT<br />
continued from page 1<br />
ELECTION<br />
continued from page 1<br />
ment percentage for retired<br />
employees at the time of the<br />
Superintendent’s retirement.”<br />
With seven years of service<br />
to the North Brookfield<br />
school district, O’Neill would<br />
have been entitled to a 70 percent<br />
reimbursement rate<br />
under his contract.<br />
According to a brief from<br />
O’Neill’s attorney, John J.<br />
Driscoll of Holyoke, O’Neill<br />
was not eligible for the<br />
town’s retiree health insurance<br />
plan because he did not<br />
have at least 10 consecutive<br />
years of service. So, the reimbursement<br />
clause was written<br />
into his contract.<br />
Driscoll’s brief stated<br />
O’Neill remained on the<br />
town’s health plan through<br />
COBRA, and paid the entire<br />
cost, until January 2007. He<br />
then bought his own health<br />
insurance plan and paid the<br />
premiums himself.<br />
In January 2011,<br />
Hampshire Superior Court<br />
Judge Mary-Lou Rup ruled<br />
the School Committee and<br />
the town should pay O’Neill<br />
Wood and Town Moderator Donald<br />
Cherry Jr.<br />
Davis said Housing Authority<br />
member Diane Desaulnier had not<br />
yet contacted her to announce<br />
whether she would seek re-election.<br />
In the meantime, Richard<br />
Hammarstrom has pulled nomination<br />
papers.<br />
Also appearing on the June 11<br />
ballot will be a three-year term on<br />
the Moose Hill Water Commission<br />
now held by Ruth Kaminski.<br />
Nomination papers must be<br />
returned no later than 5 p.m.<br />
Tuesday, <strong>April</strong> 23 to the town clerk’s<br />
office at Town Hall with the signatures<br />
of at least 42 registered voters<br />
in Leicester. The forms will then be<br />
$46,052.57 — the amount of<br />
his health insurance premiums<br />
from Aug. 15, 2005 to the<br />
date of the decision, plus<br />
interest and costs. The town<br />
and the school board were<br />
also ordered to reimburse 70<br />
percent of the cost of his<br />
health care plan for the rest<br />
of his life, as stated in his<br />
contract.<br />
The town and the School<br />
Committee appealed the decision<br />
to the Supreme Judicial<br />
Court. David Jenkins and<br />
Brian Maser, attorneys with<br />
Kopelman and Paige in<br />
Boston, wrote in their brief<br />
that the health insurance<br />
provision in O’Neill’s contract<br />
exceeds the six-year<br />
limit under state law for<br />
agreements between a school<br />
board and a superintendent.<br />
They also argued it was<br />
beyond the authority granted<br />
to the School Committee<br />
under state law to put that<br />
provision into O’Neill’s contract.<br />
“There is a distinct difference<br />
between the term of a<br />
contract and the extension of<br />
a benefit earned under a contract<br />
of finite length,”<br />
Driscoll wrote in his brief.<br />
given to the registrars of voters for<br />
certification of signatures.<br />
The deadline to object to or withdraw<br />
from the ballot is Thursday,<br />
May 9.<br />
The final day to register to vote in<br />
the Annual Town Election is<br />
Wednesday, May 22. The town<br />
clerk’s office will be open from 8<br />
a.m. to 8 p.m. that day.<br />
Pre-election campaign finance<br />
“The [School] Committee’s<br />
failure to distinguish<br />
between a lifetime benefit<br />
and a lifetime contract is selfserving<br />
and unavailing.”<br />
On Feb. 8, the Supreme<br />
Judicial Court upheld Rup’s<br />
ruling.<br />
“The School Committee at<br />
the time exercised poor judgment<br />
in signing a contract<br />
with Mr. O’Neill,” Petraitis<br />
said last week. “The Board of<br />
Selectmen and the School<br />
Committee last February or<br />
March decided together to<br />
appeal the insurance decision.<br />
The School Committee<br />
Leicester election races beginning to pick up steam<br />
reports are due to the town clerk no<br />
later than Monday, June 3. Postelection<br />
financial reports are due<br />
Thursday, July 11.<br />
Polls will be open from noon to 8<br />
p.m. June 11 at Town Hall for the<br />
Annual Town Election.<br />
Five weeks before that will be the<br />
Annual Town Meeting, which has<br />
been scheduled for Tuesday, May 7.<br />
The last day to register to vote at<br />
at the time ... understood that<br />
it’s the school’s responsibility,<br />
and the School<br />
Department needed to find<br />
the money to pay it. It was a<br />
bad contract that should<br />
never have been signed.”<br />
Petraitis said the town has<br />
received a copy of the<br />
Supreme Judicial Court’s<br />
decision.<br />
David Dore may be reached<br />
at (508) 909-4140, or by email<br />
a<br />
t<br />
ddore@stonebridgepress.com.<br />
Town Meeting is Wednesday, <strong>April</strong><br />
17.<br />
The town clerk’s office is open<br />
Monday, Wednesday and Thursday<br />
from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Tuesday<br />
from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. For more information,<br />
call (508) 892-7011.<br />
David Dore may be reached at<br />
(508) 909-4140, or by email at<br />
ddore@stonebridgepress.com.<br />
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To Advertise on this page call June at 508-909-4062 or email newleaderads@stonebridgepress.com<br />
ADVERTISE IN THIS DIRECTORY AND REACH OVER 15,250<br />
HOMES IN SPENCER, LEICESTER, AND THE BROOKFIELDS.<br />
Ad deadline for the Local Service Providers Directory<br />
is Friday, 2 pm.