[0:07] Okay. Uh, our next item on the agenda is open form and announcements. Uh, does

[0:12] anybody have anything to talk about that's outside the scope of the agenda

[0:17] this evening? Okay. I don't think we do. Um, just a

[0:21] couple housekeeping items. We have copies of the presentation that we're

[0:25] going to be showing down here as well as copies of the agenda. So, if you don't

[0:29] have one of those and you feel like you will have difficulty seeing on the the

[0:33] screen behind me, just put your hand up and we'll we'll Mike, would you mind?

[0:39] Oh, boy. Okay. I don't know if we have enough to accommodate everybody. So, um

[0:46] Okay.

[0:49] » This [clears throat] has also been posted to our packet. So, it is

[0:51] available online. So, if you can access it via your smartphone if you have that

[0:56] with you.

[0:59] And I'm going to give Mike a second to get that information out to you folks.

[1:05] » So, I'm gonna I'm going to move on to our next agit agenda item, which is our

[1:10] health insurance listening session. The reason why we're all here this evening.

[1:13] And first, I just want to say thank you for all of you all taking out time from

[1:18] your day to come here and be with us this afternoon. We also have quite a

[1:22] number of people on our Zoom meeting. Um we recognize that this is an imposition

[1:27] to you all to take up time and come uh and we recognize that this is an

[1:31] important con uh topic for you. So thank you very much uh for making the effort.

[1:36] We really appreciate it.

[1:40] » I am going to get to that in one second. Yep. So thank you for that segue. Uh my

[1:45] name is Chris Barrett. I am the current chair of the select board. Uh just to

[1:49] give a little bit of history about me, I've been volunteering for the town for

[1:52] about 15 years now in various positions. Uh most recently, uh this is now my

[1:57] second term as a select board member. Um with the rest of my board here, I'm

[2:03] going to introduce them. We have Sean Kelly, Noel, Tom, Elizabeth.

[2:09] These are folks that have all been like myself, volunteering in one capacity or

[2:13] another for this community for a very, very long time. Uh we all have kids that

[2:18] have gone through the school systems and taken part in uh programs like what the

[2:23] park and wreck offers. Um we recognize that the efforts that you and the

[2:30] retirees um are what make Westford the place that

[2:36] we all want to live and raise our families in today. Um, I can't tell you

[2:41] how positive my interactions have been um with the teachers in the schools, uh,

[2:49] with the professional staff that I've had the opportunity to work with over

[2:52] the past decade and a half. Uh, I've seen just displays excellence that I

[2:58] would never have thought possible. The dedication,

[3:02] uh, the willingness to go the extra mile is truly remarkable.

[3:07] And I just think, you know, I'm not alone in that. I recognize that our

[3:13] residents probably feel the same way. And I understand that this discussion is

[3:18] probably making a lot of folks feel like we're not being listened to. We're not

[3:23] being uh we don't feel like the leadership recognizes what we do for the

[3:28] community. And I want to make sure that everybody is really clear that on behalf

[3:33] of myself and I think I'm speaking for my board as well that we truly value

[3:38] your contributions to this community. Again, because of your efforts, we have

[3:43] a wonderful community to live and raise our families in. So, thank you for that.

[3:49] Now, having said that, one of the challenges that I've recognized in my

[3:54] time as a board member on the select board is that we have to make really,

[3:58] really hard decisions and we are representing the entirety of

[4:04] Westford, all 25,000. Well, when we have difficult decisions,

[4:10] um, it's really, really challenging. And we have that scenario unfolding today.

[4:19] But it hasn't started today. This has been coming for years. Starting with our

[4:26] budget override attempt a few years ago. This board went through extreme lengths

[4:30] to try to get a budget override passed. Uh many listening sessions, outreach to

[4:37] the community. we went and hosted finally one of the largest town meetings

[4:42] this community has ever had and unfortunately

[4:46] um that budget override did not pass at the ballot and as a result we've had to

[4:52] make some really really hard decisions uh including laying people off and

[4:56] really tightening our belts and unfortunately that financial situation

[5:01] has not improved significantly. What we have done as a leadership team

[5:06] in working with Kristen, our town manager, is to try to find as many

[5:11] efficiencies as we can to try to make our budget dollars go as far as they

[5:17] can. And Kristen's going to go into that with a presentation that she has

[5:20] following my remarks. And we continue to look for avenues to

[5:26] increase growth and to bring more revenue into this community so that we

[5:31] can all enjoy the things that we want to enjoy. Uh including health insurance,

[5:36] including you know salaries that are measure it with our benchmark

[5:40] communities. Um but still, you know, keep our buildings functioning, keep our

[5:45] police, you know, staffed well, our fire department staffed well, make sure that

[5:51] we have fire trucks and things of that nature. There's so many competing

[5:54] priority. It's very difficult to satisfy all of them.

[5:59] So, one of the things that we've been doing

[6:02] and when we've been looking at these efficiencies is following the playbook,

[6:08] if you will, that came out of the budget task force effort. Uh, this group did a

[6:14] multi-month deep dive into every area of Westford's town government, including

[6:20] the schools, and looked at how we could do things better. And if you want, that

[6:26] report is on the town website. It's a it's actually a good read. Um, and we've

[6:32] gone through and tried to tackle a number of the recommendations that were

[6:36] made in that task force's report. And one of those is to look at health

[6:43] insurance. To start that initiative off, we engaged

[6:48] an independent consultant to do a review of our current health insurance

[6:52] operations. uh that came back to us earlier this year and since then we've

[6:57] been having discussions about how do we need to make some changes in order to

[7:03] try to rightsize the health insurance offerings so that they are can measure

[7:07] it with again our benchmark communities and to implement this these changes in a

[7:14] way that matches our budget needs to some degree. Um, and I will say that we

[7:22] have had to work at a pace faster than we're all comfortable with.

[7:29] Um, however, we have learned that we have

[7:35] some more time. We have some more options. And as part of the presentation

[7:40] that Kristen's giving after I'm done, she's going to talk about the new

[7:44] timeline that we're going to be potentially utilizing to do this health

[7:48] insurance review. And hopefully that will give us some more time to sort of

[7:54] reset, figure out where we're going to go uh with a more thoughtful process

[7:59] than what we had previously established or used. So, with that, um, I'm going to

[8:05] just take a quick pause. Going to just turn to my fellow select board members.

[8:09] Is there any comments from the board before I turn it over to Kristen

[8:14] that you want to make? >> I think most of the comments I have are

[8:17] what you just Sorry. >> Hi, Tom Clay. I was just going to say

[8:21] that I think most of the comments I have are either you've already made them or

[8:24] they're in Kristen's report. So, >> I'm good.

[8:27] » Same. Thank you. Okay. So, with that, I'm going to turn the mic over to

[8:32] Kristen last. Here's our town manager and she's going to give the presentation

[8:35] that hopefully we can all view up on the screen. And uh thank you very much for

[8:39] your time. Do you want to use this mic?

[8:49] Thank you.

[8:54] All right. Good afternoon everyone. Uh thank you so much for those of you who

[8:57] are in the room here at Stonybrook and on Zoom. Also, uh we have WCAT here who

[9:02] is taping this. This is not live streamed this evening, but you will be

[9:05] able to access the video likely tomorrow or over the weekend. And the Zoom is

[9:10] being recorded as well that will be posting to the town's web page. Uh we

[9:14] did post this presentation to the packet documents this afternoon. So, we are um

[9:19] you may access it there. Uh also, if you do need a hard copy when you leave,

[9:23] please contact the town manager's office tomorrow and we are happy to get you a

[9:27] copy if you need that. And oh, I hear there's some more coming

[9:30] as well. Um, I did want to introduce uh the assistant town manager of strategic

[9:35] operations, Mike Edwards, here and also Dan O'Donnell, our finance director. Uh,

[9:40] they have been also instrumental in this discussion, as well as our HR director,

[9:44] Pam Hicks, who's on vacation, and the number of our health insurance trust

[9:48] members, some who are here today and some who are here online. Um, we have

[9:53] enabled the question and answer function on the Zoom. So, if you are not in the

[9:57] room and you do have a question, please type it into that question and answer

[10:01] function. If you're having trouble with that, you can type it into the chat, but

[10:05] we would prefer the question and answer function. I am going to go through the

[10:08] entire presentation before we take questions and answers because it does

[10:12] flow very nicely and it may answer some of your questions after that. Um, some

[10:17] of these things that I am going to mention, uh, Chris has said before, but

[10:21] I think it's, uh, fine to duplicate those efforts as well. So, let's make

[10:26] sure this works. All right. So, just I always like to

[10:31] start a presentation with the overview of what we're going to talk about today.

[10:35] Uh Chris mentioned why we are here. I'm going to dig into that a little bit

[10:38] more. We're going to talk a little bit more about the budget task force report

[10:42] and how that addressed health insurance. We're going to talk about Westford's

[10:46] specific efforts to date related to efficiencies and change. We're going to

[10:51] talk about our overall financial and operational challenges. We're going to

[10:55] talk about health insurance trends that came out of the locked report and what

[10:59] we're seeing in the market. We will talk about our market basket comparisons.

[11:03] That is the 20 20 communities that we compare ourselves related to

[11:08] classification and compensation. We're going to then wind down to talk

[11:12] about where we're going from here, specifically the timeline and then

[11:16] outlining next steps and then giving you all a chance to ask questions and then

[11:21] what the process is for outreach moving forward.

[11:25] So why we are here? So as Chris alluded to, the budget task force report

[11:30] identified health insurance as one of our major structural budget issues and

[11:34] ma major costs within the town budget. The company Locked In was retained

[11:40] through the Health Insurance Trust uh with the support of the select board

[11:44] back in November of 2025 to independently evaluate our health

[11:48] insurance program in total. Most recently on July 1st, the Health

[11:55] Insurance Trust voted on a number of items and the select board reviewed

[12:00] those votes on July 2nd. I'm going to read them, but know that these may

[12:05] change over the course of the presentation. There may be discussions

[12:08] and decisions that may change. So the first vote was to no longer pursue the

[12:12] GIC as a healthcare plan for implementation uh effective July 1st,

[12:17] 2027 to defer implementation of a GIC

[12:21] lookalike plan or a benchmark plan uh until of design changes for November uh

[12:27] 2026 renewal and allow the health insurance trust to reassess that in the

[12:32] spring of 2027 and to pursue pursue negotiations with the insurance advisory

[12:37] committee, discussions with the insurance advisory committee and uh

[12:40] negotiations with the PEC public employee committee uh towards

[12:44] implementation of a midpoint plan design change intended to take effect November

[12:49] 1st of 2026. We'll talk about that November 1st date in a minute.

[12:56] So based upon further review after these votes took place and conversations with

[13:01] our broker Hub and I just want to note our broker uh Mark Christelli from hub

[13:06] is on the line. So if there are specific questions about our existing plan design

[13:10] or any changes, he is available to speak to that. Uh he is on the zoom. Uh we

[13:15] learned that plan uh adjustments could be made mid year or midcycle. So that is

[13:20] new information that we did not present and uh were not clear on back at the

[13:25] beginning of July. So now we have a new timeline that is in play that we're

[13:29] going to discuss today. and we want to make sure that further evaluation of

[13:33] plan changes is taking place by the health insurance trust.

[13:39] So digging a little bit deeper into the budget task force report and if you look

[13:42] at this presentation online the light blue is a clickable link so it will

[13:46] bring you right to the budget task force report that was published in October of

[13:50] 2023. That overall report identified townwide long-term structural deficits

[13:55] that we had. It identified the health insurance as one of our largest

[14:00] financial pressures, estimating 1 to2 million of budget impact in fiscal 25

[14:05] and 26. We started fiscal 27 two weeks ago on July 1st, just for context. It

[14:12] identified that the expenses of our partially self-insured plan were far

[14:16] higher than forecasted over the past 12 months. And that was in 2022 to 2023.

[14:22] And the recommendation of that report was to review Westford's health

[14:25] insurance strategy to ensure that it was the most cost-effective course.

[14:32] I want to note that the select board and the town staff and other boards and

[14:36] committees along with the finance committee uh and others have done an

[14:42] immense amount of work since that budget task force report was implemented and

[14:47] accepted. We've started to pay off smaller capital projects rather than

[14:52] carrying the debt. We've implemented a townwide centralized fleet

[14:58] fueling that for as much a much less cost than going to the pump at the town

[15:02] of Westford. We've uh now implemented a self-sustaining recreation enterprise

[15:07] that is no longer subsidized by the general fund.

[15:11] We continue to implement energy efficiency projects utilizing grants,

[15:15] incentives, and net metering credits at no cost to the taxpayer. In some

[15:19] instances, we did have a reduction of staff

[15:23] following the unsuccessful override in all areas.

[15:27] We are starting to actively and have been actively auctioning off surplus

[15:31] equipment to backfill our free cash. Back at the spring of 2026 town meeting,

[15:37] we uh asked the town meeting to authorize to file with the legislature

[15:42] uh to change digital legal ads to release the burden on uh residents and

[15:46] businesses who are filing for uh permits that require legal ads. We're continuing

[15:52] to support our economic development efforts and that was a uh budget item in

[15:56] the fiscal 27 budget to continue to try to increase our revenue and our

[16:00] commercial tax base. We implemented a pay as youth throw

[16:04] hybrid program partially shifting the cost of the curbside trash services to

[16:09] residents who are using that service. And we continue to look at a townwide

[16:14] fee review to align fees with the actual cost of providing certain services. So

[16:19] these items hit certain categories. It hits taxpayers, it hits employees, and

[16:24] it hits businesses. So I just want to be be cognizant about that.

[16:29] We also need to understand that we have continuous townwide financial and

[16:34] operational pressures. Our costs are rising faster than our projected revenue

[16:39] growth under Proposition 2 and a half. Our fiscal 26 and 27 budgets relied on

[16:44] plan use of one-time funds to maintain services and that was primarily in the

[16:49] school budget and they laid out a very robust plan of how they would be

[16:53] spending down those one-time fees. our school transportation expenses and our

[16:58] special education tuition are continuing to increase above that two and a half

[17:02] limit. We see our rising uh energy, utility, and other operating costs.

[17:08] We continue to need to fund our Middle Sex County retirement system liability

[17:12] and that continues to increase as we have many more retirees and that cost is

[17:16] increasing. We want to make sure that our other post-employment benefits, OPEB

[17:20] funding, is strong to maintain our AAA bond rating, which ensures that we get

[17:26] the lowest possible interest rate when we're going to borrow for capital

[17:30] projects. We've seen that we've deferred

[17:33] maintenance across our properties and facilities, and that has been shown in

[17:36] our townwide facilities updates that have been discussed. We talked a little

[17:40] bit about that on Tuesday night at the Robinson School Building Committee

[17:43] meeting with the tri boards. We also continue to prioritize

[17:48] competitive compensation for recruitment and retention. This is a major item that

[17:52] the select board identified in our strategic plan that we need to continue

[17:55] to do to ensure that we retain our employees and we recruit active

[18:01] employees. And then we are also seeing as we've discussed our health insurance

[18:06] expenses and rising Medicare costs. And you will see that in a future slide.

[18:12] So this slide lays out two things. The red line outlines the percent of our

[18:19] health insurance costs over the percent of our operating budget year-over-year.

[18:26] On this far side, it starts with fiscal 19 and the other side ends at fiscal 27

[18:32] because we've budgeted for that. So you will see that our health insurance costs

[18:37] in terms of budget is increasing year-over-year.

[18:40] We also wanted to make sure that we showed you that in fiscal 22 we

[18:44] implemented the health insurance trust and that trust balance has been growing

[18:49] over time which is a good thing because we are using it to buffer in certain

[18:53] areas and that was identified in the lock report that we did have a healthy

[18:57] trust fund balance finally when we were doing the budget task force report in

[19:02] 2023 our balance was not good at that point in time so we're proud to say that

[19:07] that has increased

[19:11] What's also telling though is our subscribers. So in the uh red orange

[19:17] color is our total of non-medicare plans. So our active employee plans and

[19:23] you can see that that is actually decreasing from fiscal 2010 to fiscal

[19:29] 27. Our Medicare subscribers is actually

[19:35] increasing. We have a number of retirees that are increasing.

[19:40] We also have five-year trends that are showing that our Medicare costs have

[19:44] risen 13.4% over the past 5 years and our

[19:48] non-Medicare costs have increased 7% over that period of time. That is more

[19:53] than the 2 and a half% that we're allowed to raise through Proposition 2

[19:56] and a half.

[20:01] There's been a lot of conversation and a lot of confusion over how we compare

[20:04] ourselves to our market basket. So those 20 communities that we compare ourselves

[20:09] related to compensation and classification. I'm not going to go

[20:12] through everything, but there are three packets online and I have linked them

[20:17] here. So we have a market basket premium rate and contribution analysis for the

[20:22] active plans. We have our overall annual town contribution rates and then we

[20:27] broke it down to our retirey Medicare employee contributions.

[20:32] I want to caution you that when you're reviewing this data, you should review

[20:36] it as a comprehensive package because if you look at it each individual table, it

[20:41] tells an individual story, but you really should be looking at it

[20:45] comprehensively. to summarize these sheets because there

[20:50] are a lot to look at and it may not be familiar to you. Westford is an outlier

[20:55] in employee employer contribution percentages but not in employer

[20:59] spending. So in the employer contribution percentage, we're at the

[21:04] bottom of the market basket. For employer dollar contributions in the HMO

[21:09] and the PO plans, we're approximately average or slightly below the market.

[21:14] For employee dollar contribution for the HSA, we are below average. And for the

[21:21] retiree Medicare contribution, we're really in the lower middle of that.

[21:26] We do have one of the most comprehensive plan designs within our market basket.

[21:31] So, I want to note that.

[21:35] So where do we go from here and what do we do with all of this data? So I just

[21:40] want to be clear that there have been no plan design changes since the

[21:44] implementation of the trust in 2021. That is actually very uncommon. Many

[21:50] municipalities and many private sector entities or nonprofits are looking at

[21:55] changes every year or every two years. So we have some options to look at.

[22:01] We'd like to see the Health Insurance Trust review a midpoint plan design that

[22:05] was discussed at the last trust meeting and discussed at the select board

[22:08] meeting on July 2nd. We do still want to identify and and look into a benchmark

[22:14] lookalike plan. We want to look at our fund balance and potentially a targeted

[22:19] drawdown to alleviate general fund implementation into the health insurance

[22:24] trust. We wanted to create a fund balance

[22:28] policy. When the health insurance trust was implemented, it was noted that we

[22:32] should have about a $3.5 to $7.3 million balance. Now that we've had a trust for

[22:38] over 5 years, it's prudent to look at what that targeted fund balance should

[22:42] be and create a policy. And there may be other alternatives that we have not

[22:46] thought of. And I know one of the frequently asked questions we got was,

[22:50] can we submit other alternatives? Please do. and I know some of you have and then

[22:55] we will likely begin negotiations if anything comes out of that health

[22:58] insurance trust meeting under uh Mass General Law chapter 32 section 21 and

[23:04] 22. That may sound foreign to you. We do have more information on the website,

[23:08] but that is this the general law through the Commonwealth of Massachusetts on

[23:11] health how health insurance is changed and negotiated in the public sector.

[23:18] So this slide may be slightly difficult to read in the room. Again, it is online

[23:22] and we can get you additional packets. And it talks about a timeline. And now

[23:27] that we've found that we could do a mid plan adjustment, we have developed a

[23:33] timeline for a potential adjustment for May, excuse me, March 1st of 2027.

[23:40] It is not clear if this would be an active employee only or a retiree only

[23:45] or a combination change at this point in time. That needs to be investigated and

[23:49] reviewed by the health insurance trust. So I want to be clear about that. We are

[23:53] currently under number one. So June 2nd to July 24th, we're modeling options.

[23:59] We're calculating savings and we're preparing for potential mitigation. And

[24:03] I will talk about that in a previous in a prior in a future slide.

[24:08] July 24th to August 7th, we anticipate that the health insurance trust will

[24:14] meet and will review and potentially endorse a plan change proposal. I have

[24:20] called for a health insurance trust meeting for next Thursday, July 30th. Uh

[24:26] if we can get all the members together or most of the members together, you'll

[24:30] be notified of that meeting and of course welcome to attend.

[24:35] Between August 7th and August 21st, if the Health Insurance Trust comes up with

[24:40] a plan, the select board would vote to enter into negotiations which would be

[24:46] led by the town manager. And then August 21st to August 28th

[24:51] would be step five where there'd be formal PEC notice. So public employee

[24:55] committee including proposed changes, savings, and a mitigation plan.

[25:01] And then step six, August 31st to September 30th, would be that 30-day

[25:07] negotiation window for the PEC. And that is a state law. That is not something

[25:12] that the town of Westford has made up.

[25:16] If we can come to an agreement, if there are changes proposed with the PEC,

[25:22] by that point in time, there would be a vote by October 9th, there would be

[25:27] final local approval in terms of a contract by December 15th and a written

[25:33] agreement. And then there would be a 60-day notification period.

[25:39] If there is not an agreement, Mass General Law has an appeal process to a

[25:45] state board and that re review process takes between 30 to 60 days. The review

[25:52] panel would make their decision and then if there is an implementation that would

[25:56] follow, but both of these paths would contemplate a March 1st change if

[26:01] possible.

[26:05] So I want to talk a little bit about mitigation. So, this may be a foreign

[26:09] term to some of you, but if a municipality is contemplating plan

[26:14] design changes, they are required by state law to negotiate with the PEC a

[26:20] mitigation for those who may be impacted by the changes that are proposed. Um,

[26:27] I'm not going to read the entire slide, but some examples are a health

[26:31] reimbursement associate agreement, some wellness programs, a healthc care trust

[26:37] fund, which we actually have, out-ofpocket caps, other qualified

[26:41] medical expenses, and health insurance premium holidays. We are not required to

[26:47] give a mitigation package over 25% of the savings that the town of Westford

[26:52] would see if there is a change. So, I want to be clear about that.

[26:58] So, I'm wrapping up here. So, if you're thinking of questions, now is the time

[27:02] to to get those ready. Um, next steps. We want to continue public engagement.

[27:07] Um, I will admit from my standpoint, we may not have done the best job engaging

[27:12] our employees and our retirees and the public related to this. I see this

[27:16] action today as a reset to gain trust and confidence that we want to educate

[27:22] you all. We want to provide as much information as we can in a clear and

[27:26] concise manner and we want to receive your input.

[27:30] Again, we want to receive your feedback. Stay in contact with your IA and PEC

[27:36] representatives if you're an employee or retiree. Um, just in case you're not

[27:41] aware, I did just this week uh name Jod Ross as the retiree IA representative.

[27:46] Marilyn Frank, thank you so much for your uh service over the years. She did

[27:50] resign a few months ago, but the retirees now do have an IA and PEC

[27:55] representative. Thank you, Jody. And there will be future,

[28:01] [applause]

[28:04] like I said before, there will be future trust and select board meetings and all

[28:08] of those are in public, open to all of you, and are posted. And if you need or

[28:13] want to email the town manager's office, we have that email listed here, or the

[28:16] select board, um, feel free to do so. So, with that, I'm going to turn it back

[28:21] over to Chairperson Barrett, and um Mike Edwards is going to monitor the question

[28:27] and answer. So, I'll leave it to you, Chris.

[28:31] Thank you very much, Kristen, for that comprehensive uh presentation. Uh I'm

[28:37] sure there was a lot of acronyms though that were thrown around and uh if you do

[28:40] have any questions on those again please put them in the chat if you're on the on

[28:44] the sorry the question and answer uh portion of Zoom and you obviously you

[28:49] can ask uh today um two questions actually for me to you Kristen and one

[28:55] is you did highlight or mention that we we have stumbled a little bit with our

[28:59] communications um so with this new timeline and the expectation of of a

[29:06] number of future meetings. Could you just go a little bit more into detail on

[29:10] how folks can be notified that meetings are going to occur and sign up for any

[29:16] sort of, you know, email distribution list that we may be maintaining at this

[29:20] point so that you can be as involved as possible.

[29:23] » Can you do Absolutely. So, um, if you're comfortable with the website, you can

[29:28] sign up under the notify me tab for select board meetings and health

[29:33] insurance trust meetings. Um, we do have a healthy email list right now for

[29:39] retirees, but if you are not on that list, please contact your retiree

[29:43] association, whether it's MTRS or Middle Sex, and they will get you on that list

[29:47] and we will update that as well. Um, we are trying to do as much on social

[29:52] media, posting these meetings as well or following along for the health insurance

[29:56] trust website or the select board website. Um, so we are doing our best to

[30:02] get the word out. I know not everybody can access those ways. Even if you have

[30:06] a question and you want to understand that, contact our office. We're happy to

[30:09] help. So, one logistic thing, when we do open

[30:13] it up to questions and answers, I'm going to put the microphone here. If you

[30:16] are able-bodied to come up to the microphone, we'd really appreciate it

[30:20] because the owl is picking up the Zoom for people who are on the Zoom to

[30:24] listen. If you are not able-bodied, just raise your hand. We're happy to walk a

[30:28] mic to you and we may just repeat the question if those at home can't reach

[30:31] it. But if you have any other questions, Chris, that you want me to answer, happy

[30:33] to do that. >> Yeah, thank you very much, uh, Kristen.

[30:36] Uh, I think one of the things that I took away from the number of emails that

[30:41] we received, and I believe that number was over well over a hundred. So, again,

[30:46] thank you very much for taking the time to draft those emails. Um, it really

[30:50] meant a lot to to me and I'm sure to my fellow board members as well as town

[30:54] staff that uh you took the time to do that. Um, but one of the things that I

[30:59] took away was, you know, what is this going to mean to me? What how is it

[31:03] going to affect my deductibles or my premiums? So, Kristen, can I know this

[31:10] is difficult, but with the timeline that we just sort of unveiled, at what point

[31:14] do you you know, this is a guesstimate to some degree. Please be in mind, keep

[31:19] that in mind, but when do you think people will be able to get answers to

[31:22] questions like that? Sure. So, we have initially worked with hub on

[31:29] what some plan design changes may potentially look like and what it may

[31:34] look like for a low user of the plan, a medium user of the plan, and a high user

[31:40] of the plan. So, that information is out there, but we need to do a better job

[31:43] boiling it down for you. Unfortunately, because health insurance is so personal

[31:47] and everybody's situation is so different, we can't put up a calculator

[31:51] for you to plug in what your situation is like we did for the override just to

[31:56] plug in your t in your home so you could see, you know, if your taxes were going

[32:00] up or not. Um, so we will do our best to try to take a low user, a medium user,

[32:06] and a high user and balance that out and model that out. Um and we'll work with

[32:11] hub on some other modeling because they are familiar with doing this with other

[32:15] municipalities as well. >> Okay. Thank you Kristen. Um first is

[32:19] there any questions from the rest of the board here?

[32:22] » Are we ready to hear from the the public? Okay, fantastic. Um so I know we

[32:27] have a number of questions online. Why don't we take one right now and then

[32:32] again if you're interested in asking a question, you're here in this room,

[32:35] please come down to this mic and queue in this quarter or raise your hand and

[32:38] we can bring a mic to you. So, uh, why don't I pass that?

[32:42] » Sure. So, the first question comes from an anonymous attendee. I know a few

[32:46] years ago the town used to go out to bid on different insurance companies to see

[32:49] which would offer the best rates. Is there a possibility to do that again?

[32:53] Some of the documents make it seem like Blue Cross Blue Shield is the only

[32:56] option. Western is a large customer of theirs and I think they would reduce

[33:00] their premiums if they knew they could lose us as a customer if we were

[33:03] shopping around for better deals. >> So Mark, could you um discuss from your

[33:10] standpoint as our broker about how you do go out to bid uh each year when we're

[33:14] in the renewal period? >> Sure. Yeah. In the past at Westford, we

[33:19] have looked at other alternatives, keeping in mind that, you know, Westford

[33:23] is now on what what the insurance world would call a self-insured plan. So

[33:28] approximately 85% of all your costs and have really nothing to do with Blue

[33:34] Cross Blue Shield or with Harvard or Mass General or Singular Etna. That 85%

[33:40] of costs of the plan are are direct reimburse reimbursements to healthcare

[33:44] providers and to pharmacists. So what's left over to negotiate on is about 15%.

[33:51] Roughly so roughly about six to 7% is what actually goes to Blue Cross Blue

[33:56] Shield for administration. So that's what gets paid to them um to do what

[34:02] they do, negotiate discounts, administer claims and everything else they do. And

[34:08] then the other uh balance of that uh is for stop-loss insurance. So that's the

[34:12] actual insurance. So, we do have some insurance even though we're

[34:16] self-insured. So, we have a very large deductible that uh the town

[34:21] self-insures. Um and then above that deductible, the

[34:27] uh and there's a separate stop-loss insurance company that pays anything

[34:30] above that. So, at the end of the day, when you're negotiating discounts from

[34:35] carriers, you're really negotiating on 15% of the overall cost. So just kind of

[34:41] simple math, if we were able to find a claims administrator and the stop-loss

[34:46] carrier to be 10% below what your current fixed costs are, that'd be about

[34:51] 1.5% of the overall cost of your health. And

[34:56] not a little 1.5%, but you know, we certainly have looked at different third

[35:01] party administrators out there and some claims administrators charge less than

[35:05] the cost. And um from a stoploss insurance

[35:09] standpoint, that's something we've put out to bid to 20 carriers every year to

[35:14] try to find the very best stop-loss. Just to give you a little color on the

[35:18] stop-loss insurance, I'd say over the past four years, the insurance carriers

[35:22] probably paid out in excess of uh a million dollars in claims and

[35:28] they've taken an increase. >> Thanks, Mark. I think we're going to

[35:32] move on to the next question. Anybody

[35:38] in person? Why don't >> Why don't we just keep going through the

[35:41] mic? Let's just keep moving what's online.

[35:42] » All right. So, next question comes from Janet Dubner. Are you committed to

[35:46] ensure that retirees who have moved out of state will still be able to access

[35:50] Westford's insurance coverage.

[35:54] » Uh, that's an emphatic yes.

[35:59] » Okay. Next question coming online from Jesse Byer. Being that the data shows we

[36:03] rank at the bottom in contribution percentage and below mid in actual

[36:07] dollars the town town contributes, I'm curious why the select board is asking

[36:11] employees to absorb more of this burden. The data clearly shows the town should

[36:15] be doing more, not less. So, it's disappointing that it appears the

[36:19] decision is being made independent of the data. What is going to happen if a

[36:24] switch is made and we fall to the bottom of our peers?

[36:31] Uh, okay. Thank you, Jesse, for that question. Um, I don't know if I'm the

[36:35] Kristen, do you want to take this? Nope. Okay.

[36:40] Tom wants to take it. Very good. >> I'm happy to take a step.

[36:45] So, um, it took me a while to to go through all these numbers and feel like

[36:49] I've got a good grip on it. So, uh, absolutely right that, uh, that the town

[36:53] gives 35% supports 35% which is at the low end, but, um, if you look at the

[36:59] dollars, I don't know if we're bringing that up or not, but if you look at the

[37:02] dollars in the report, you can pull it up. We're very very close to the average

[37:05] of what the town pays on behalf of you. So, the the policy is actually a richer

[37:09] policy. It's a little bit more expensive. Uh, so we have a smaller

[37:12] percentage, but the actual dollars that we pay are very very close to the uh to

[37:16] the B to the the average within our market basket. So, uh, we're close in

[37:21] there. Um, why are we even considering this at all? Well, uh, I think the

[37:25] answer to that might be in the, um, the slide that looks at the percent of

[37:29] budget. So when we look at uh long-term planning for the town and we look at

[37:33] things that are rising faster than 2 and a half% and are consuming more and more

[37:37] budget dollars, uh we feel like we have to take a look at those and see if uh

[37:41] there are steps that we can take reasonably together in partnership that

[37:45] will help us sort of in over the long term remain within our our sort of

[37:49] budget uh capacity. And so I think the numbers show that we uh pay about 50%

[37:55] more in healthcare now than we did in 2019. So, it's a big jump. I think it's

[38:00] 11% of our budget instead of 9%, something like that. So, it's continuing

[38:04] to grow. And so, just like we do with every other uh spending category in

[38:09] town, we want to make sure we're looking carefully to see if there's some

[38:11] adjustments that we can make to still have a reasonable plan, but but help us

[38:15] over the long term make sure that we're not eating into other critical services

[38:20] with with any with any uh expense category that we deal with. And that was

[38:24] the finding of the budget task force was we need to look at those things over

[38:27] time. if we don't tend that garden over time and they continue to consume more

[38:31] and more resource, it's less uh teachers, fewer firefighters, fewer

[38:35] other public service and that we're able to offer here in town. So, so that's why

[38:39] we feel like we have to take this this reasonable look.

[38:44] » Any other comments from the board on that question?

[38:47] I mean because I think that this is brought up a lot right which is sorry

[38:52] Sean Kelly um from the select board also the select board appointee to the health

[38:58] insurance trust I'm acutely aware that that we rank low

[39:03] on the employer contribution right it's 35% where most of our peer communities

[39:09] are about 30%. One of health health insurance is

[39:13] tremendously complicated, right? And there are certain le levers that you can

[39:17] pull um that can change behavior and save costs, right? Um one of those is if

[39:24] you make adjustments to a a plan, you can in theory actually reduce overall

[39:30] premiums, right? So by instituting things like co-pays and deductibles,

[39:36] things of that nature, you can change behavior of the users to prevent, let's

[39:42] say, costly emergency visits, things like that. Um, if there's a deductible

[39:47] associate associated with it, that can also result in lower overall premiums.

[39:54] And the idea is is and I think what's getting left out is if there is a plan

[40:00] design change, this could this will result in lower premiums for for

[40:06] a lot of people a lot of people who are current users and um partake in our

[40:12] health plan. I I think that's getting lost on it because one of the things

[40:15] that I often hear from our employees is that our current insurance model is too

[40:20] expensive even for them, right? So we could by making plan design changes

[40:26] actually reduce the premium in in an ideal world and I can't speak for my

[40:32] colleagues but I would love to see us be able to reduce the premiums and then up

[40:36] the employer contribution and I don't think that those two things are um

[40:43] inconsistent and I think it's something that we can do long term but we first

[40:47] need to start making plan design changes. So, I think that we can save

[40:50] the town money and that we can also offer a plan uh that's maybe not as

[40:55] robust but has a lower premium. So, >> Sean, thank you very much for those

[41:00] comments. And I want to say was it uh we have a 56% or 54% enrollment. Is that

[41:06] about right? >> 56% of our employees take advantage of

[41:09] our health insurance options. Now, uh we do have somebody at the mic. So, why

[41:14] don't we go to you, sir? Can we We've got a mic there. Good. If I'm sorry if

[41:18] you would just please let us know your name and address so we have it for the

[41:22] record. Thank you. >> Uh it doesn't have to be it could be

[41:23] your position. >> I got you. Uh Tyler Buts I work for the

[41:27] highway department. Uh just hearing that we're low in percentage contribution

[41:35] but the dollars is even. All that really says to me is if it changes it's going

[41:41] to punish the people who actually use it and those are the people who need it the

[41:44] most. So, am I wrong in that or is that am I picking that up correctly?

[41:53] I mean, I can I can take a stab at. We do have Mark from MB on it, but at our

[41:57] last health insurance trust meeting, um Mark indicated that plan design changes

[42:02] would cost um it would result in more out-ofpocket expenses for 60 or 2/3% of

[42:11] users, whereas one-third of users would have overall cost savings. So, yes, if

[42:18] you're a high user of it, it's going to cost more.

[42:21] » From my recollection, it was around $2,000 from the high users. I just I

[42:27] just feel like that's not that's not right.

[42:29] » Sure. >> Shouldn't be punishing people for using

[42:31] it and contributing either retirees portions of their lives and for

[42:37] employees portions of our day. And it just sucks.

[42:44] [applause]

[42:50] We have another question in the queue here. So, why don't we take one and then

[42:54] we'll get to the mic. >> Thanks, Chris. So, from Larry Panero,

[42:58] the water enterprise fund allocated a significant amount of funds for

[43:02] postretirement benefit costs. So, there should be plenty of funds available to

[43:05] cover the water department retiree postbenefit expenses. And these costs do

[43:09] not impact the town's deficits. The water department retirees should be

[43:13] excluded from any changes.

[43:18] » So if there are changes, it affects all in the group, right? We're not going to

[43:23] exclude if you're a water department employee or not. I would like to ask Dan

[43:27] to answer the question if he knows the answer about the enterprise and the

[43:31] contributions to health insurance.

[43:37] So the water enterprise oped fund which is the other post-employment benefits

[43:41] including health insurance for the water enterprise was fully funded years ago.

[43:45] Uh they it kind of serves as a model for how we want our general fund uh oped

[43:50] account to work in the future. Uh however as I understand it like all of

[43:54] our our plan changes are the same throughout the entire town for town and

[43:59] schools.

[44:06] Okay. Well, let's take you at the mic, please.

[44:08] » Thank you. Melanie Jazokus, 26th year uh teacher at Westford Academy. Um I just

[44:13] had and I I think I'm echoing what this young gentleman said about um

[44:18] discouraging people from seeking help if they need it. Um because I Sean, it

[44:24] sounded like twothirds of people, you know, may have um that

[44:29] premium increase or especially if we're going with deductibles now. Um I think

[44:33] that's my biggest concern is that people won't seek the help that they need. Um

[44:38] and I know at least in the schools, we talk about mental health all the time

[44:41] with students and staff. Um and and that I think concerns me overall is that

[44:46] people just won't seek the help or the treatment that they need if so I guess

[44:50] it's not really a question. It's more of a statement. Um and I wasn't sure how um

[44:54] the low user, medium user, and high user was going to be kind of detailed out,

[44:58] but I think that question was answered. So um yeah, I would just have you think

[45:02] about that. That would be great. Thanks. >> Great. Thank you for your comment. Why

[45:06] don't we take another one from the queue?

[45:08] » Sure. Uh anonymous attendee writes, "Can you please explain exactly how the

[45:12] retirees will be impacted? In some communication, it sounded like the

[45:16] retiree coverage was being discontinued."

[45:20] So the retirey coverage is absolutely not going to be discontinued. We're not

[45:25] going to be even looking at that right now. With this reset, we are looking at

[45:30] both the active plans and the retiree plans and we'll present those ch

[45:36] potential changes if that occurs. So, we do not have that clearly right now, but

[45:40] there will not be an elimination of a retiree plan.

[45:48] » Thank you, Kristen. Why don't you go ahead, sir?

[45:52] » Tim Hall, 51 North Street, retiree. I have a couple of questions. One is where

[45:58] do we rank with those 20 towns as far as percentages? I I know that you said

[46:04] we're on the lower side, but what is the average? Is it 7525? Is it 8020? That's

[46:10] my first question. >> Okay, why don't we just take that first

[46:13] question? So, as Kristen alluded to earlier with her presentation, uh we do

[46:18] have this information on the town website, there's I mean at least 18

[46:23] pages of comparison data ranging from the employee and the town's

[46:29] contributions to the premium cost and I did we ever get the deductible

[46:34] information in there as well? No, that is not. That will be coming in in a

[46:37] future iteration. So, there's at least two or three ways that this can be

[46:40] looked at uh depending on which plans that you use um and whether or not

[46:45] you're using a family versus you're a single consumer. So, to go over that in

[46:50] a lot of detail here is probably outside the scope of this meeting. Um but it is

[46:54] available to you uh to consume and if you have questions, I would recommend

[46:57] talking with the town manager's office. >> Okay. Thank you.

[47:00] » Yeah. My second question is is coming in here this today. Um I did bump into a

[47:07] couple of employees from the school department and I want to know if I know

[47:12] Pam Hicks and Kristen has made good efforts to make sure that the

[47:16] communication but these people told me that nobody's heard of it. So I where

[47:21] Pam is the head of HR here with the town side, the assistant superintendent is

[47:28] the head of the HR side for the schools, which is also our biggest employee base

[47:34] and the biggest retiree base. Are they making sure that their notifications are

[47:39] getting out there as well? >> Thank you. Um, I can tell you that Pam

[47:44] Hicks sent an email to all town and school employees two weeks ago. I did as

[47:49] well earlier this week. I understand that not all school employees are

[47:53] checking their email because it is summertime. So I did get a lot of reply

[47:59] automatic replies that they were out of the office. Courtney Moran was aware of

[48:03] this meeting. Um I am not aware if she had any additional outreach to the

[48:07] teachers. I can't answer that question. It's

[48:09] » not just the teachers. It's >> some sorry I do not know if Courtney had

[48:13] any additional correspondence with the additional staff. Again,

[48:21] that was a great question and you know, we've definitely uh know that

[48:24] communication is a challenge, not just on this issue, but with a lot of things

[48:27] that the town does and we're continuing to look to improve our avenues to get

[48:32] out the word to the residents uh and retirees in this case. Um I will say

[48:38] that with this new timeline, uh a lot of the action, so to speak, will start to

[48:42] take place when school is back in session. So I think that communication

[48:46] challenge might lessen a little bit but we remain 100% committed to improve

[48:52] communication levels to the best that we are able. I mean that is 100% something

[48:57] that this board has been behind from uh the time that I've been there and this

[49:01] particular situation is no exception and it actually proves that you know we

[49:05] still need to do better. So uh we appreciate your patience and we are

[49:08] going to try to do better in the future with communication. Uh why don't we take

[49:12] a question from the queue here. Hang on one second, Captain. Uh, so just a

[49:16] followup from Jesse Byer. My original question is in regards to actual dollars

[49:20] the town contributes. In several cases, we are even below our GIC community

[49:24] peers in what the town contributes. The slide shows below mid already before

[49:29] changes. Um, not really a question there, but Jesse, thank you for the

[49:32] followup.

[49:37] » Okay, thank you Jesse. Uh, next at the mic.

[49:40] » Um, my name is Brandon Holmes. um the town resident and work for the police

[49:45] department. Uh my question is is um we've already the health insurance trust

[49:50] has voted to move $950,000 back over to the town fund and we're projected to

[49:55] save over a million dollars from reducing GLP ones from our coverage. Um

[50:00] that's almost $2 million. Is there a target budget line that you're looking

[50:03] to save um like an end goal or is it just overall? I just was curious on how

[50:09] deep we're looking to go on the savings side. Thank you.

[50:12] Uh that's a great question. I think at this point uh we are not able to give a

[50:18] hard number. Um we recognize or we are aware at this point that we are

[50:24] potentially facing significant budget challenges for FY28. Uh that is still

[50:31] you know quite some time away and we're going to see some changes in our expect

[50:35] our projections between now and then. Um but we we do know that that

[50:42] is a fairly substantial deficit at this time. So we are looking to you know save

[50:48] wherever we can. Um do we have any other questions

[50:53] » Mark? Okay.

[50:57] » Hi Ellen Rainville the library director and insurance is not my favorite reading

[51:04] genre. I have found that out. So I have some comments. Um

[51:11] I think that employees now are under the impression that as we move employees on

[51:18] that side of the ledger closer to the market basket,

[51:23] we aren't seeing what equal action is being taken on the town side of the

[51:28] ledger. So, if there could be a consideration of the town paying a

[51:34] higher percentage as we absorb non-pretax,

[51:39] non-predictable costs in terms of co-pays and in terms of um deductibles.

[51:46] I think that would be most of us would agree that would be the fair thing to

[51:50] the employees. On the face of it, when I read the 170 pages and everything else,

[51:57] it seemed like we had a comprehensive plan that was costly, but because

[52:03] employees were paying such a high percentage, we were getting what we paid

[52:07] for. So, I'm glad to hear for the first time that the actual cost that the town

[52:13] pays is average because I don't think I saw that data and I also never saw the

[52:19] data of how many subscribers were in the insurance

[52:24] um plans of other towns. So, for example, I couldn't compute what the

[52:29] cost per subscriber was from community to community.

[52:34] I did go down another rabbit hole to see if everyone in the GIC had a AAA bond

[52:40] rating and they don't and I would wonder if joining the GIC would impact our bond

[52:46] rating. Um I also respectfully ask us not to talk about transferring costs to

[52:53] employees as an efficiency. We don't see it as an efficiency. We see

[52:59] it as a migrated cost that we're being asked to assume.

[53:03] And finally, and I know this is not always popular when I bring this up, but

[53:08] I'm an old feminist, so I'm going to say it. My mother sent me the first issue of

[53:13] Miz Magazine when I was in college. When I looked at your demographics of those

[53:19] of us who are being covered by health insurance, it's predominantly female.

[53:24] I looked at age, I looked at gender. So I just want to remind us, you know, as

[53:30] we are aging into the retirement group, we have an age that's more associated

[53:36] with illness. Women have earned only 82 cents for

[53:41] every dollar of males. They are likely to live longer. They are likely to

[53:45] outlive their spouses. And so I am also concerned as a female about the cost to

[53:52] the women who are retiring out of the town.

[53:58] » [applause]

[54:06] » Thank you for that feedback, Ellen. Appreciate it.

[54:08] » Thank you, Ellen. Um, I just had two questions. Now, my name is Jennifer

[54:12] Clero and I work as the director of the Cameron Senior Center. Um, when you were

[54:16] doing the market basket, I was just wondering, did you look at the other

[54:20] benefits that the other towns um were providing such as short-term disability,

[54:25] dental, visual, I mean, vision, long-term disability, because I know

[54:29] that's something that we're we're having to absorb on top of our premiums.

[54:35] Um, can anybody speak to that? >> Jennifer, I can help answer that. So,

[54:39] this market basket comparison is purely health insurance. uh we have had a

[54:43] discussion with hub to review the market basket related to those other

[54:47] insuranceances. They are working on it but it does take time because there are

[54:51] so many in intricacies. So we do anticipate eventually being able to

[54:55] present that data. >> Okay. And then my follow-up question

[54:58] would be you know on your long-term planning um what other revenue analysis

[55:04] are you doing outside of health insurance that we haven't heard about

[55:07] today? I know we're focusing a lot on health insurance. Are there some other

[55:11] new revenue ideas that you have outside of health insurance?

[55:17] » I can answer that Chris if that's okay. So yes, there are a number of other

[55:22] items that we are pursuing related to revenue generation. Um if you attended

[55:27] town meeting or uh have been following along the economic development committee

[55:31] and the land use management department is actively pursuing additional

[55:36] businesses and understanding how we can grow our commercial base. Uh we recently

[55:40] completed two corridor studies that speak to that. Uh we know that we will

[55:45] have additional new growth in the coming years related to the permitted projects

[55:49] at 219 Littleton Road, the former Westward Regency and 37 Powers Road. We

[55:55] know that comes with additional services needed with police and fire and

[55:58] potential schools, but there will be new growth potential there. Um and there are

[56:03] other things that we're working on related to revenue. I noted in the

[56:06] presentation, we're going to be we have started and going to continue a full fee

[56:10] analysis and understanding where those fees may hit. Is it a business owner? Is

[56:15] it a resident? Is it somewhere else? So, that's just a a brief menu of some of

[56:19] the things that we're working on. So, hopefully that helps.

[56:24] » And just one more thing to add, um this has come up in the past, not necessarily

[56:29] specific to this topic, but just in general to taxes. So, we do have a new

[56:36] uh working group that's looking at how Westbird aortions its tax rates across

[56:42] residential, commercial, industrial. Um that group started a few probably now

[56:48] about six, seven weeks ago. They're feverishly trying to get that analysis

[56:52] done. Um so a lot of people have come to us and say hey why don't we have a split

[56:57] tax rate for example or other types of programs that help uh ease the burden on

[57:03] say maybe senior citizens uh that are residents of this community. So please

[57:08] keep an eye out for the results of that effort because I do think it will be

[57:11] helpful for answering some questions that I've seen posed in some of the

[57:15] emails that we've gotten. The other thing that I just wanted to just point

[57:18] out is and this is related Ellen to your question. Mike, can you just hold up

[57:23] that blue chart? I believe that's part of the packet and this this is the the

[57:27] what we've sort of been talking about in terms of the market basket comparison.

[57:30] You can kind of see how thick it is. So, this is what's going to allow us to

[57:34] visually allow you all as well to visually see where we are for the

[57:39] different plans. uh again the different types of analysis being whether it's uh

[57:44] contribution analysis or contribution uh percentage um or premium and that's

[57:49] going to go and be broken down by both family and single-user plan. So a lot of

[57:54] rich data there for for you to consume and if you have again any questions uh

[57:59] town manager's office or any of the select board members would welcome those

[58:03] questions. Uh do we have any other uh we do have some more questions come in.

[58:07] Yeah.

[58:14] » I'm going to give that to you. >> Tom Clay again. Just another example,

[58:19] Ellen, of of places that were looking at addressing long-term structural

[58:23] challenges. So, pay as you throw came out of that effort. It was recommended

[58:26] as something to look at um uh by the budget task force. The idea was how do

[58:31] we cost share basically with the residents in this case to make sure that

[58:34] over a long period of time we're not uh spending more and more on trash at the

[58:38] expense of first responders, teachers and all the other valuable services that

[58:41] we have. So uh if you if you uh if you have the time and interest you can look

[58:46] in the budget task force that actually gives a long list of uh of revenue

[58:50] source things that we investigate. Some of them we've already done, some of them

[58:53] are pending, but u lots of effort there and an important thing for us to be

[58:57] focused on.

[59:01] Thank you, Tom, for that additional context. All right, we're going to take

[59:04] another question from our queue. There's a comment first. I'll just read

[59:09] from an anonymous attendee. Not all employees have Westford K12 or Westford

[59:13] MA.gov emails. There is a pool of employees who were not notified of this

[59:16] meeting. Have employees go look for information rather than pushing it out

[59:20] is putting the burden on the employees. Um,

[59:26] question. Yeah. >> So, if that is the case, um if you could

[59:31] contact TMAA westwardmma.gov with that information, we would like to put you on

[59:36] our email list. Also, please sign up for notifications. Um I was not aware of

[59:41] that. So, please so thank you for making that comment this evening. Um and we

[59:45] will do our best to get you on a list. >> That is a fact. And I think the uh the

[59:54] school office has a list of all non uh email

[1:00:01] uh employees and >> we can certainly reach out to the

[1:00:06] schools and make sure we're taking advantage of every opportunity to reach

[1:00:09] people. Well, let me just reiterate what the gentleman said of the how.

[1:00:13] » Uh he did mention that the school maintains a list of emails for uh

[1:00:18] employees that do not have access uh to town or school emails. So, we'll we'll

[1:00:23] reach out to uh to Courtney and Dr. Chu and make sure we take advantage of that.

[1:00:28] We're we are taking every opportunity we can, but we have to know how to get in

[1:00:32] touch with people. We have posted flyers. We have put things in break

[1:00:35] rooms, um locker rooms, restrooms, etc. So, social media, we we're doing

[1:00:41] everything we can, but you can help us get the information out if you can feed

[1:00:44] it to us how we can get in touch with people. So, thank you. Um,

[1:00:50] » so Mark, I I see that you're maybe waiting in the wings. Do you want us to

[1:00:54] take some more questions? Okay. All right. Go ahead.

[1:00:58] » So, next question, uh, from Nate McKinnon. Isn't it true that the report

[1:01:01] to the town indicated that Westford had the highest total cost per employees for

[1:01:05] the HMO plan compared to all other communities? The HMO accounts for 59% of

[1:01:10] our total enroles. This report indicates that for our most subscribed plan, we

[1:01:15] pay more for individual and family plans than all other communities. Given this,

[1:01:19] what is the source of information that we paying average?

[1:01:26] » So, we're just pulling the page number from the report. So Mike, if you can

[1:01:30] find it and give me the page number. >> So pages seven and eight.

[1:01:37] » Okay. So we are looking at if you're looking at the packet, the market basket

[1:01:40] contribution rates and monthly contributions.

[1:01:45] pages seven and eight out of 28

[1:01:51] that shows that Westford is below in employer dollar amount contribution for

[1:01:56] single and HMO employer contribution family.

[1:02:02] Westford is also below market basket.

[1:02:10] » The premium >> total premium.

[1:02:14] » Yes.

[1:02:18] » Take this back.

[1:02:24] » Uh just give us a qu a second to see if we can bring that up on the screen here.

[1:02:31] So this is a 28page PDF uh market basket, premium rate and contribution

[1:02:37] analysis. It goes through HMO, PO, HSA. Uh this particular file does not include

[1:02:44] retiree but retiree is a separate file.

[1:02:50] So the HMO employer contribution percent for single Westford is going to be in

[1:02:55] green. I'm going to decrease this a little bit just so you can see the

[1:02:59] chart. Westford is at the lowest at 60%.

[1:03:05] HMO employer contribution percent family.

[1:03:09] Westford is towards the bottom at 65%.

[1:03:15] HMO employee contribution percent single.

[1:03:20] Westford is at uh the top.

[1:03:25] HMO employee contrib contribution percent family.

[1:03:29] Westford is towards the top.

[1:03:34] HMO full monthly premium for the single employee. There's two HMO plans. There's

[1:03:40] a high and a low and those are in green. Just tell me when to stop. pull me up.

[1:03:47] HMO monthly full premium for a family towards the top

[1:03:58] HMO employer contribution.

[1:04:04] Okay, since Kristen did mention this is 28 pages, just to show a hands, we were

[1:04:09] be happy to to go through the rest of these slides, but if people are not

[1:04:11] interested and just want to look at this data on their own, we'll let them do

[1:04:14] that. I think we've answered the the point that Nate made. I'm not seeing any

[1:04:18] hands, so why don't we move on to the next question.

[1:04:24] Looks like Mark's not at the stand, so we'll just keep rolling through these.

[1:04:28] » Go ahead. >> So, Larry Panero again writes, "Has the

[1:04:32] town ever considered to change the tax rate for businesses? Currently, they pay

[1:04:36] the same rate as the residential rate." So, the town did have a study committee

[1:04:41] uh I believe in 2010 that reviewed that and they decided not to change it. Uh

[1:04:46] every year in November, the select board hears from the chief assessor and they

[1:04:50] hold a tax classification hearing to decide if they would change the rate or

[1:04:54] not. Right now, as excuse me, [clears throat] as Chris alluded to or

[1:04:58] others on the select board alluded to, there is another study committee looking

[1:05:02] at the tax rate uh related to residential and commercial splits.

[1:05:08] It doesn't change the >> it would shift the burden to the

[1:05:12] businesses uh off the residential. Um the amount that we raise stays the same.

[1:05:17] We can only raise by 2 and a half% plus new growth.

[1:05:24] » Okay, we now have somebody at the mic. Let's turn it over to this gentleman.

[1:05:27] Please let us know who you are. >> Uh Mark Cost, uh chair of the finance

[1:05:32] committee for a long time, member of the select board and chair capital committee

[1:05:36] forever. Uh, first of all, thank you for acknowledging the communication issues

[1:05:42] um, not only with the select board, but I have to admit also with the health

[1:05:46] insurance trust in informing the public about what was happening, when it was

[1:05:52] happening, and feeling like it was a rush to get a job done. And I'm glad to

[1:05:56] hear that some of these changes have at least been deferred.

[1:06:01] Um, second of all, the issue of our expenses rising more than Prop 2 and

[1:06:06] a half are not new. They've been going on at least since 2008 when I started to

[1:06:13] get involved. This has been an ongoing issue. So, this is not new. It's not new

[1:06:18] to the schools. It's not new to the town departments and it's certainly not new

[1:06:22] as it relates to health insurance. Um,

[1:06:27] lastly, so these are more comments that question, which is probably not a

[1:06:31] surprise to you. First of all, Chris, thanks for acknowledging the 100 plus

[1:06:34] emails. I'm sure most of those were from me, if not uh not all. Um,

[1:06:41] making decisions about health insurance costs outside of a budget process seems

[1:06:48] completely incoherent to me. to do this and not have the taxpayers in town

[1:06:55] understand the other choices that could be made outside of the costs of changing

[1:07:02] people's health insurance cost seems completely wrong. So I would encourage

[1:07:07] you I saw these I was hoping to hear nothing was happening this fall but to

[1:07:12] see that some things could still happen this fall outside of the taxpayer

[1:07:17] understanding what's happened into their costs going into next fiscal uh I don't

[1:07:23] understand that. So I'd ask you to reconsider the timeline. Thank you.

[1:07:29] » Oh okay. Uh thank you very much for those comments Mark. Uh we do have some

[1:07:33] additional copies of the presentation and meeting material. So if you're still

[1:07:37] looking for that, just raise your hand and this gentleman here will bring them

[1:07:40] over to you. Okay.

[1:07:47] Well, we have we have plenty more questions. Okay. We have somebody else

[1:07:50] at the mic, so why don't we go ahead and take you and then we'll get to our

[1:07:53] online questions. >> Hi, my name is Caren Wilkins. I'm in my

[1:07:56] 13th year at Blanchard Middle School. Um, it's more of a I just want to see if

[1:08:01] you can comment on the survey that went out to the employees because I'm not

[1:08:04] sure if everybody heard that. I did hear it at the trustee meeting um a couple

[1:08:09] months ago, but I did hear um I thought that those answers were really

[1:08:13] interesting and I think that we should take that into consideration a lot when

[1:08:16] we're talking about employee retention since you were talking about employee

[1:08:19] retention being really really important. Um, and I just want to take into

[1:08:23] consideration like the way that the employees are feeling about this because

[1:08:27] it seemed like those are really high numbers um, in that survey. So, I didn't

[1:08:31] know if you might be able to share some of those numbers with everybody. So, I

[1:08:34] can comment that we did send out a survey last um, summer and fall. Uh, I

[1:08:40] unfortunately don't have those numbers in front of me now, but they are uh,

[1:08:43] posted. We're able to get them to you if you need. Uh, and those were taken into

[1:08:47] consideration when Lockton prepared their report. If you have any other

[1:08:50] specific questions, I'm happy to to talk with you about that.

[1:08:53] » Well, I just think it's important to say like employees, you know, in order to

[1:08:57] retain employees and we have a lot of employees and they're hoping that the

[1:09:00] insurance stays similar to what we have. Um, I just think that's an important

[1:09:05] thing to take into consideration um just getting people in as employees, you

[1:09:11] know, getting new employees in and repaying what they already have. The

[1:09:16] insurance is a huge deal for that. Sure.

[1:09:22] So, she's just talking about that the survey results she wants to make sure

[1:09:25] that people understand that employees were mostly satisfied with the health

[1:09:29] insurance and want to maintain what they have now, which I understand. Thank you

[1:09:33] very much.

[1:09:36] » Took a question from online from Ed KBY. Can you please share with the retiree

[1:09:41] population the links to the online webinar materials as well as the various

[1:09:44] select board reports you referenced today? Uh they are all currently shared

[1:09:50] uh on the town's website in a few places. One on the health insurance

[1:09:53] trust website link directly uh but also you can go to the do to the document

[1:09:58] center and find the individual packet item. So everything is posted if you

[1:10:02] have any trouble finding that. Um please feel free to email or call our office.

[1:10:10] » I think did you have a point? >> I just had a quick Y

[1:10:13] » I just had a quick question Mike. So, I know that we sent um we pushed out

[1:10:18] notice of this meeting. I'm wondering if we could just push out to everyone who

[1:10:22] we we have access to a link to these materials just to save them the trouble

[1:10:25] of hunting and pecking through the through the website.

[1:10:29] » We did already. Okay. Thank you. >> Uh Tom, thank you very much for that

[1:10:34] comment. I do want to also add uh this is obviously a topic of interest for

[1:10:39] lots of people. Um, I I think maybe if we could make an effort to put something

[1:10:44] on the homepage so people aren't trying to navigate to find it, especially

[1:10:48] people who are not familiar with our website. Let's see if we can make it a

[1:10:51] little bit easier for folks to to get to this information.

[1:10:55] » And we can absolutely, again, in reference to that gentleman's comment,

[1:10:58] we can reach out to the schools, see if they have additional emails, and then

[1:11:01] the things that we have previously pushed out, we can push out again.

[1:11:09] take a question from the microphone. >> Hi, Nicole Keefe. I've been at day

[1:11:13] school teacher for 28 years. I just I appreciate the pushing off the timeline

[1:11:19] uh till March, but and I'm also appreciative to hear that you're looking

[1:11:23] having a committee look at the tax base or the the rate between businesses and

[1:11:27] residents. But I'm curious what's the timeline for that committee

[1:11:33] and why wouldn't you look at those pieces first before implementing health

[1:11:38] insurance changes to all the employees? >> Sure. So the select board set the

[1:11:42] deadline for the tax working group to report back in August of 2026. So within

[1:11:47] the next month. So that will be coming uh and we have to look at all of these

[1:11:52] things in tandem as they all layer in.

[1:11:59] I just wanted to uh it took again took me a little while to understand how the

[1:12:02] tax classification works. I just want to emphasize something that uh came up

[1:12:05] before. So we do have the ability once a year during the tax classification

[1:12:10] hearing to to choose the allocation of burden between residents and commercial

[1:12:14] taxpayers. But that doesn't affect the total amount collected. The total amount

[1:12:18] collected that we can use which is called the levy uh that is basically

[1:12:23] capped at this 2 and a half%. So the only change we can make is who pays how

[1:12:27] much. So it would affect the residents and how much they pay in taxes or the

[1:12:31] businesses and how much they they pay, but it wouldn't change the available

[1:12:34] funds. So just just to make it clear, and we will look at this again, the

[1:12:39] reason that we decided to keep it the same between commercial and residential

[1:12:43] when we reviewed this in 2010 was because Westford is now about 90%

[1:12:48] residential, 10% commercial. So in order to make a $1 difference for residents,

[1:12:55] we have to make a 10. If we offset $1 for residents, that raises the

[1:12:59] commercial by 10. And so it has a huge effect on the commercial to make any

[1:13:03] real difference for the resident. And the other issue is we want to make sure

[1:13:07] we're competitive and attracting businesses. We want to make sure that

[1:13:10] when people are choosing where to locate, they don't see any disadvantage

[1:13:13] coming to Westford. At the time that we looked at it, other communities like us

[1:13:17] that had the same kind of, you know, office type uh commercial property

[1:13:21] footprint had similar uh tax rate had had also had a the same same tax rate

[1:13:26] between residents. So those are the things that uh that are at stake here.

[1:13:31] Please join in the the tax uh classification committee that's doing

[1:13:34] the study now if you're interested in that. But just to make it clear that

[1:13:37] that's an allocation issue, not a total dollars raised issue.

[1:13:43] Uh thank you Tom for breaking that down for us. Really helpful. Uh I will also

[1:13:47] add to his comments and I think you know Kristen did mention this is that we we

[1:13:52] do have a wonderful economic development committee in this community uh that

[1:13:56] works very very hard to try to enhance Westford as a place that businesses want

[1:14:02] to do business in. Um and we have spent funds to hire consultants to work with

[1:14:09] that group over the last was it about 18 months at this point uh to see if we can

[1:14:14] continue to grow our commercial base because we know that is one way that we

[1:14:18] can uh try to offset the burden on our residents. Okay, we have another

[1:14:23] question online. >> We do and this is a long question

[1:14:27] followed by a comment. So, I'm going to ask I'm going to read the question.

[1:14:30] We'll answer it and then I can respond with the remainder of the comment. I'm

[1:14:34] sorry if I missed introductions, but what is Mark Chrysatelli's position in

[1:14:37] the town? He works or used to work in the insurance industry. I'm confused by

[1:14:41] his answer to the question about considering other providers than BCS in

[1:14:45] order to save money.

[1:14:50] So, Mark Christelli works for Hub. The town of Westford has hired Hub to be our

[1:14:56] insurance broker.

[1:15:00] And following up on that, now that that question was answered, uh even if it

[1:15:03] saves 15 or if it's only 15% of total cost, it still makes sense to me to

[1:15:07] consider the option of shopping around, especially since when we used to do this

[1:15:11] years ago, we did not have this problem of affording health insurance. Premiums

[1:15:15] have been increasing astronomically since we have been staying with BCBS.

[1:15:19] The market basket analysis shows the town who spends much less on health

[1:15:23] insurance than we do have other insurance companies. Please consider

[1:15:27] saving costs by shopping around rather than deferring costs onto employees.

[1:15:31] Thank you for your time and consideration.

[1:15:36] Uh we have one further question from Sandy Collins. As you discussed today,

[1:15:40] the possibility of increasing deductibles, excuse me, or premiums for

[1:15:44] higher users as an option. I'm very concerned that as retirees they're no

[1:15:49] longer working, they will be adversely impacted at a time they may need

[1:15:52] insurance the most. Also, please although the effort in obtaining data is

[1:15:56] appreciated and necessary, would you request a one to two-page comparison of

[1:16:00] benefits and services, premium costs for individuals, families, and deductible

[1:16:04] impacts so rational decisions can be made?

[1:16:10] » Uh Sandy, thank you for the question. Um, as as we've talked about already, it

[1:16:15] is not as easy as, you know, just bringing a one to two-page analysis into

[1:16:20] play here. We've just already highlighted the 28page, you know,

[1:16:24] analysis that we have and as we get deeper into the plan design changes, uh,

[1:16:28] that makes it even more difficult, but we will do our very best to try to, um,

[1:16:33] you know, make it as readable and digestible for everyone as possible. So,

[1:16:37] thank you for that feedback. We have a question at the mic.

[1:16:40] » Uh, Diane Wood, 122 depot. Uh, I want to reinforce, and I'm sure everybody else

[1:16:45] does, the the need for much greater communication, especially as it relates

[1:16:50] to the general community. Uh, I suspect 99% of the people in this room are

[1:16:55] either employees or retirees. I I don't see representation from the community or

[1:17:01] at least visibility or or comments. Um, so more communication. there should

[1:17:08] there should have been more communicate more um visibility from the community

[1:17:13] more people in this room who don't represent employees or or retirees and I

[1:17:18] think you need both sides because I would say most of the people don't

[1:17:22] understand all the details that are going on right now. So just reinforcing

[1:17:27] the stronger need and I know there's just so much you can do. However, um

[1:17:32] that's a segment of the community that really needs to better understand how

[1:17:35] this will impact them. And I don't think 99% of the people who are not employees

[1:17:41] understands that. Thanks. >> Thank you so much, Diane. Um I had a

[1:17:47] conversation with the select board a few weeks ago that I thought it was a good

[1:17:50] idea to have a listening session with the employees and the retirees. So that

[1:17:54] meeting today is a target meeting for employees and retirees. We will

[1:17:58] definitely have more re more meetings and outreach to the residents, but this

[1:18:02] meeting today after my discussions with the board was really targeted towards

[1:18:06] retirees and employees. So, just to reiterate that,

[1:18:12] » yeah, Diane, thank you very much for that question and a great answer,

[1:18:15] Kristen. And, you know, as we've heard many times, we are going to try to keep

[1:18:19] the communication avenue as open and uh and people as engaged as possible.

[1:18:24] Another question at the mic. Nina Mangan, retiree, Westward resident. Um,

[1:18:30] can you tell me the number of market basket uh communities that are

[1:18:34] participating in GIC?

[1:18:39] » Mark, could you tell us the number of market basket communities that are in

[1:18:43] the GIC? I believe it's nine. [sighs]

[1:18:47] » Yeah, I was I was going to guess eight >> out of 20.

[1:18:51] » 20. Okay. And I know that at the last meeting that I attended that you did say

[1:18:56] that you had talked with town. Um the reason I'm asking is because I've read a

[1:19:03] lot of the letters that I found really respectful and very informative and I

[1:19:08] know that a couple of people that are very respected in town. Um one being

[1:19:12] Patty Dubbie. Her letter I found enlightening. And it says here, "In my

[1:19:16] 25 years as a Town of Westford employee and two years as a retiree, I have heard

[1:19:22] very few positive comments about GIC from her counterparts." And I think

[1:19:27] that's significant. She's well connected to other communities and to hear that I

[1:19:32] don't know why. Well, I do know why you're you're looking into this, but it

[1:19:36] concerns me that you're it appears to us that that's where

[1:19:41] you're leaning and and that might not be true. Um, however, it concerns me that

[1:19:50] that that's something that we're really considering out of going online and and

[1:19:53] hearing and seeing negative things. As I mentioned at the last meeting, it

[1:19:58] concerns me for people who use mental health that Westford is considering an

[1:20:03] insurance provider that is very limited in that

[1:20:08] way. It has pride itself over the years and worked hard. We have students,

[1:20:15] PE, community members have children that we know is a problem in today's world,

[1:20:21] yet they're going to be probably not going to get the access that they need.

[1:20:25] I just feel like that's very um disheartening to me. Um

[1:20:33] if we went to GIC, I've also heard that it's very difficult to to backtrack and

[1:20:40] get out of GIC. And I'd like that to be seriously considered. I mean, every

[1:20:45] other insurance company that we've gone with, we always have the assurance that

[1:20:48] it's not going to be, it will be hard work for, you know, administrators to

[1:20:53] make that change. However, that change can be made. I get the feeling that

[1:20:57] that's going to be very hard, costly to the town. Um, I'd feel better entering

[1:21:02] into GIC if I knew that that we can change our mind in a year after we've

[1:21:08] experienced for ourselves. And I I don't believe that that's really the case.

[1:21:14] » Just ask question. >> Just I'm gonna ask you to pause because

[1:21:18] you've brought up a lot of great questions and before we lose track of

[1:21:22] everything that you're saying, I want to take an opportunity to to try to respond

[1:21:25] a little bit. Um, I think part of the confusion between when you're talking

[1:21:29] about GIC and when we're talking about plan redesign changes and GIC benchmark

[1:21:34] lookalike plans, that doesn't necessarily mean that the health

[1:21:37] insurance trust is going to move us to the GIC. They actually don't have the

[1:21:41] authority to do that. What we're talking about is one of the compensation

[1:21:48] practices that Westford has always followed, which is to try to provide

[1:21:52] compensation to our employees, which is at the midline of our benchmark

[1:21:56] communities, is something that we're trying to implement for health insurance

[1:22:00] as well or look towards implementing. And what that benchmark is in many cases

[1:22:07] is a GIC plan. And so that's where that terminology comes from. Um now having

[1:22:15] said that uh the select board has the authority to

[1:22:21] dissolve the trust and move the town into the GIC.

[1:22:26] Um this board has not set any hard or fast timelines or you know plans to do

[1:22:33] that. I think there would need to be quite a bit more

[1:22:37] educational opportunities for both the town leadership and stakeholders,

[1:22:43] retirees and employees to get educated about what the GIC can offer. You

[1:22:48] brought up a question about mental health. Um, you know, the GIC does have

[1:22:54] plans that provide mental health coverage. So I think that one of the

[1:22:58] things that we could probably do to help you just make people feel more informed

[1:23:03] is to provide an educational session so that if the select board, you know,

[1:23:09] decides in the near future or, you know, from now later in the future to move,

[1:23:15] people will feel a little bit better informed. Um, as far as, you know, all

[1:23:20] we've heard is negative things about the GIC. Um, I can tell you that I've not

[1:23:26] heard that. Um, I have heard positive things about the GIC. I have heard from

[1:23:32] Westford uh employees and retirees that they fear

[1:23:36] that there's just always negative consequences. But you know, our town

[1:23:41] manager did reach out to I believe five town managers for our mark our eight

[1:23:46] town managers um of the the market basket communities and ask what their um

[1:23:52] experience has been on the GIC. Uh that is a public document. I believe it's in

[1:23:58] one of the health insurance trust packets. I saw it.

[1:24:00] » Okay. Uh and and you know by and large th those town managers said that it was

[1:24:06] a great move for their communities. Um >> but for what

[1:24:11] » let me finish. Yeah. And so you know obviously they're they may be speaking

[1:24:14] from a pure budget perspective but some did offer you know feedback that the

[1:24:19] employees seem generally well satisfied with it. Um

[1:24:23] so you know again tonight we're really talking about what the health insurance

[1:24:27] trust is going to be doing in terms of next steps. Uh and you know the select

[1:24:32] board will be continuing to discuss GIC as a potential option. But you know what

[1:24:37] I see going forward as a first move if we continue to go down that path is to

[1:24:42] have an educational session where we bring in somebody from the GIC to a

[1:24:46] session like this where we can answer questions from retirees and employees.

[1:24:50] So am I wrong in if you're looking at GIC options whatever that may be I'm not

[1:24:57] well verssed in this at all >> are you also looking at the same time

[1:25:00] what blue cross blue shield what we have today will be

[1:25:03] » yes so when we talk about plan redesign changes and we talk about a

[1:25:08] » so they're comparable >> a 15% benchmark plan that's taking the

[1:25:14] benchmark GIC plan and basically halfing the deductibles halfing the co-pays A

[1:25:20] full GIC benchmark plan would be taking what the GIC offers and you could see

[1:25:25] how much that costs to some of the because some of the towns on our

[1:25:29] comparison as you just heard basically our GIC uh enrolled uh so you can do a

[1:25:36] rough comparison. Now you'll have to take into account how much the percent

[1:25:40] that the town pays versus the employees pay. Right? So it's, you know, you're

[1:25:43] doing the right comparison, but that data will be analyzed by the health

[1:25:49] insurance trust and discussed and debated. Public input will be very

[1:25:53] welcome during that process. And as you heard from Kristen, who is the chair of

[1:25:58] the health insurance trust, that first step is going to be taking place in the

[1:26:02] next week or so. >> Okay.

[1:26:04] » There was one other question that you answered, which was why do people feel

[1:26:07] why do communities feel like they can't get out of the GIC? Well, the GIC does

[1:26:11] mandate a three-year enrollment. You can't leave, you know, within 3 years.

[1:26:16] And generally speaking, what we have heard, the reason why many of these

[1:26:21] communities can't leave is because financially it's to their advantage not

[1:26:25] to. >> Okay.

[1:26:27] » So, please, if you have any other questions.

[1:26:30] » Yeah. Um,

[1:26:36] so as a retiree, if I were to leave and go p if I was unhappy with the decision

[1:26:42] that's made for the town and I go private because I'm Medicare age, um,

[1:26:49] can I come back at some point or am I then like the dental, I can no longer

[1:26:54] come back to the town retirey? Um, I actually don't know that answer.

[1:27:01] So, if you could send me an email or the TMAA email, we will get back to you.

[1:27:06] » Yeah, >> I think that would be helpful because

[1:27:09] everything that people have said, this is going to be costly for those of us

[1:27:13] that are older and that are using our insurance that we've never used before,

[1:27:18] paid all these years, and many of us, myself included, have been so fortunate

[1:27:23] not to be unhealthy. And now we're going to have the deductibles. We're going to

[1:27:29] have it. It's just very um disheartening. Uh the only other thing I

[1:27:34] wanted to say is another letter that was written. Um it said that this person's

[1:27:41] concerned that GIC is a short time short-term cost savings um to help with

[1:27:47] the FY28 budget along with presumptions of saving in the future.

[1:27:52] Even Loctton has said repetitively that the that his estimate of cost savings

[1:27:58] may not occur and may not continue before decision to enter you know we

[1:28:04] need to consider this and and that again unless we're having a significant

[1:28:09] savings significant I just am very disappointed that the town would

[1:28:14] consider doing this to its employees and to its retirees and all these people who

[1:28:19] have worked 30 years of their life maybe less maybe more. Um, they chose to serve

[1:28:24] the town. They chose to do this. They chose to work for lesser income than

[1:28:30] they could have, but they chose this because they were weighing out the

[1:28:34] benefits of retirement. And now that's being compromised. And I think that's

[1:28:39] something that's very serious that you should consider. [applause]

[1:28:52] Uh Nina, thank you very much for your very well thought out and uh questions.

[1:28:56] Really was helpful to have that. Um we have some more questions online. So

[1:29:00] Mike, we do uh anonymous attendee asks, "I get the sense we are currently

[1:29:06] avoiding what the increases might be. Having my personal health insurance

[1:29:09] programs go up by 20% last year was a big shock. And as one gentleman pointed

[1:29:13] out, we use this insurance more now because we need it more now. It feels

[1:29:17] like we are being punished for doing so. Any chance that you can even off the

[1:29:22] offset the cost to everyone instead of just slapping it on to the retirees?

[1:29:30] » So, as I said in my presentation, we have not made any

[1:29:36] suggested changes. We are reviewing what it may mean to make changes to active

[1:29:41] employees and what it may mean to make changes to retirees. Once we have that

[1:29:46] data, we will present that out, but we do not have that information at this

[1:29:50] point in time.

[1:29:54] » And another question from Jesse Byer. I think it would be good to understand how

[1:29:58] much savings there is for the town if any switch is made. I'd hate to make a

[1:30:01] change that say passes 500,000 of cost to employees and only saves the town

[1:30:06] $150,000 or something like that. I feel this is a key question needing to be

[1:30:11] answered yet.

[1:30:16] Uh Jesse again thank you for the question and spot on. I mean certainly

[1:30:20] we are going to do that analysis in the months to come. So appreciate it. Any

[1:30:25] other questions Mike? Okay. Any other questions from members of the audience?

[1:30:32] Yes, please come on down to the mic. Thank you. It's just so that you folks

[1:30:37] can hear online.

[1:30:40] » I think it's just a clarification question. Um I I know Kristen when you

[1:30:45] did your presentation on the very it seems like on the overview or the very

[1:30:49] first slide there was um mentioned that there's it just seems like there's

[1:30:55] confusion with a statement maybe that says that we weren't going to the GIC

[1:31:00] but now we're talking about the GIC. So some of us are a little confused.

[1:31:08] So, one of the first slides outlined what the health insurance trust voted on

[1:31:14] on July 1st. And one of those votes, and Sean can speak more directly as he w he

[1:31:21] also uh voted on the trust was that uh the town would not pursue going to the

[1:31:26] GIC for July 1st of 2027. Um, now we know we have some more time

[1:31:33] to make potential changes with a potential March 1st uh, adjustment. Um,

[1:31:39] however, I'll let the select board speak to uh, if they feel that the GIC is or

[1:31:44] is not on the table. I don't have that information.

[1:31:50] » Thank you for that question. As I mentioned previously, uh the select

[1:31:54] board I think would feel it prudent to provide more opportunity for education

[1:32:01] on the GIC. That's something that uh we have not had an opportunity to do. Um I

[1:32:06] feel strongly that you know the more that we can educate people about

[1:32:09] different topics, the better the resulting conversation will be. So, uh,

[1:32:15] I I do think that the right move is to at least have a conversation, have that

[1:32:19] educ or sorry, have that educational opportunity provided and then we'll have

[1:32:24] conversations like we're having tonight to answer any additional questions and

[1:32:28] go from there. >> Yes, please.

[1:32:36] » Hi, Elizabeth. Um, there there are a couple of points I' I'd like to just

[1:32:40] offer up uh as you find them useful. Um, GIC does make a lot of information

[1:32:48] publicly available. It's a it's a program that, you know, almost 500,000

[1:32:54] people use in the state. Um, some as the subscriber, some as families. Um, as

[1:32:59] Chris said, it's very important to us that we structure information so it

[1:33:03] feels interactive and guided and comprehensible. Um, but I mentioned that

[1:33:08] you if if you are so inclined, there is information out there that is easy to

[1:33:12] find. Um, so if you were to search on FY27

[1:33:17] and GIC plan, you'd come up with a colorful I think it's about a dozen

[1:33:24] pages and it and it might do a few things that um have come up in some of

[1:33:29] the letters I've read. And I think of them as letters. The emails you've sent

[1:33:32] us are really letters. They're they're personal. They're compelling. we are

[1:33:35] reading them and and as I've read them, I've I've wanted to figure out how to

[1:33:41] thread this needle of just just making sure that some of the the facts are out

[1:33:46] there because with some facts, some of it is um a little less daunting. Um and

[1:33:51] so, you know, Chris mentioned one of them that that the medical plans that

[1:33:55] the GIC offers are medical plans. Um they aren't kind of plans, they're

[1:34:00] plans. They have um and you can read them. They have mental health, uh,

[1:34:04] substance abuse, addictive behaviors. You know, that's an example of one of

[1:34:08] the things that, um, was in some of these letters that was questioned. And,

[1:34:12] you know, you you you could see it if you wanted to. You know, please know,

[1:34:16] I'm not asking you to do it. I'm just trying to to remove some of the sense

[1:34:21] that I think I hear, which is that you feel, you know, blowing in the wind. Um,

[1:34:26] so if you want to come out of the wind, if you want to read it, it's there. You

[1:34:30] could see that some of the co-pays are really low. Um, you can see that some of

[1:34:34] the um caps are uh potentially good for you. As I mentioned, some of these

[1:34:40] letters were were very detailed in how much people pay out right now in

[1:34:46] insurance. And although it is not true for everybody, there are scenarios where

[1:34:51] there are um aspects of choice that that might be

[1:34:56] beneficial. And I'm not advocating for the GIC, but I do really feel that

[1:35:02] there's a lot of um understandable fears that are driving

[1:35:09] views on it. And we're just trying to get to what's real about it. And in many

[1:35:13] conversations about difficult choices, it's helpful to know what that outer

[1:35:18] bumper is. And that's the outer bumper. And so adding shape to that is part of

[1:35:22] just get getting aware of where the bumpers are. And also it is so important

[1:35:28] that we're part of this middle communication. But it is uncomfortable.

[1:35:32] I mean there's so many things where we we don't know all the answers. It is

[1:35:36] part of being excuse me in the journey along the way while possibilities are

[1:35:42] being considered when there's a a a reverse. um you know, we thought

[1:35:47] something was going down one path and tried to share that and we had to

[1:35:51] reverse and we learned more and now we're going forward again. So um you

[1:35:56] know, I'm going to wrap this all up to say, you know, I I really appreciate all

[1:36:00] your letters. I'm glad they're part of the public record. They are important.

[1:36:04] Um if you are so inclined, I just want you to know there is some information

[1:36:09] there, but we're very committed to also packaging more in a very structured way

[1:36:14] as we learn it. very glad you're on the journey with us. Wish it weren't bumpy.

[1:36:20] Um it is. We're acknowledging it. We're here together on that. You know, thank

[1:36:24] you for sharing the input we've asked for and and I believe the conversations

[1:36:30] are are in a robust way today but going to continue.

[1:36:40] » All right. Thank you, Elizabeth. That was a really great way to put all of

[1:36:43] this into a different context and understanding. So, I appreciate your

[1:36:46] your comments. Um, we have some gentlemen at the mic. So, go ahead, sir.

[1:36:52] » Uh, my question would be is with the plan design changes uh that are

[1:36:56] proposed, has there been any analysis that's done is if we make this more

[1:36:59] attractive and attract more users, um, what would our savings be at that point

[1:37:05] if even if it raises by 5 to 10%.

[1:37:10] » Thank you, Captain Holmes. That is certainly one of the things that the

[1:37:12] health insurance trust is reviewing is if we do make plan design changes, would

[1:37:17] that increase the number of people on the plan, what would we anticipate and

[1:37:21] what would that uh anticipate related to additional costs that we would um see.

[1:37:25] So that is part of the analysis that we are looking at with hub.

[1:37:28] » Okay, thank you.

[1:37:33] » Okay, you're next. >> Tim Hall, North Street. Um question is

[1:37:39] if you guys are considering I know you're not considering the GIC this time

[1:37:42] around but for FY28 if you are considering the GIC

[1:37:47] um would you at least try to maybe offer a little bit more of

[1:37:53] the percentage picked up like say a town like Lexington where they're on the GIC

[1:37:59] they pick up 80%. we only pick up 65 and where we're going to lose things like

[1:38:04] mental health coverage and other things. It would be nice to get something out of

[1:38:11] it. Anyway, >> uh again, thank you for your comments.

[1:38:14] Uh just to be clear, GIC does provide mental health coverage. So, just want to

[1:38:18] make sure everybody is aware of that because that keeps coming up. Um, but

[1:38:23] it's I think a little too early in the journey uh to to to give you a a hard

[1:38:28] and fast yes on that because we would first need to have that educational step

[1:38:33] get us a little bit more informed about the GIC and what it might look like for

[1:38:37] Westford. uh we we do have some analysis done by Lockton that shows uh a you know

[1:38:45] the amount of proposed savings if we were to go to the GIC as well as a

[1:38:49] breakdown of how that savings might change if we had additional enrollment.

[1:38:54] Um but one of the things that has not been discussed at this point is you know

[1:38:59] potentially changing the uh contribution from the community towards or to to the

[1:39:06] to the uh employees on that. So I think that's something in the future that we

[1:39:10] could definitely analyze um as we get further along that path if we decide to

[1:39:14] go that way. We may not. We may decide that we have the educational session and

[1:39:18] say this is not right for Westford. But I I do see that that's an option that I

[1:39:23] would not say is off the table. I just can't give you a firm answer on it at

[1:39:26] this point. >> Understood. Thank you.

[1:39:28] » You're welcome. >> Hi, Phyllis Snider, retirey. I just have

[1:39:31] a question. Did you interview other insurance companies or just GIC

[1:39:37] or did you mention that like TUS or something else? Did you look at them

[1:39:41] also?

[1:39:46] So I think um in terms of the market and Mark can speak to this if I misstep u

[1:39:50] Mark Christelli um over the course of the past few years the town of

[1:39:55] Westford's health insurance trust has talked to the GIC

[1:39:59] which offers a multitude of plans through a multitude of providers. We

[1:40:03] have talked to the Massachusetts interlocal insurance association Maya

[1:40:07] about their plan offerings and we talk with hub about their their offerings as

[1:40:12] well. So we continue to have these discussions every single year

[1:40:16] » because years ago we did have TUS and we had um I forget the other one.

[1:40:21] » There was Fallon as well >> and a third one. There was another one

[1:40:24] too. >> I I maybe Harvard Pilgrim. I'm not sure.

[1:40:29] » I thought there was another one. >> GIC has a number of plans. I don't have

[1:40:33] the the copy in front of me, but there's a number of options to choose from based

[1:40:37] upon active and retiree, um based upon the region that you're in and all of

[1:40:42] those items, but I don't want to get into that this evening.

[1:40:49] » All right, we have a question at the mic.

[1:40:50] » Hi, I'm Jody Ross, 34 Lawson Road. So, I'm privileged to be the PEC rep for the

[1:40:56] retirees and thank you Kristen for just appointing me to the IA for retirees.

[1:41:01] What I hear from the retirees is they're afraid of having to change doctors or

[1:41:08] change facilities or drug benefits. And that's what I hear from most of them.

[1:41:13] And I think the unknown is what's really um creating a lot of angst. Uh the GIC,

[1:41:21] we none of us really know whether we would have to change doctors, not if

[1:41:25] they're in Florida, New Hampshire, whatever. That would be really important

[1:41:29] to understand that. Um somebody asked I think it was Nina about um survey my

[1:41:36] recollection didn't look but remember from meeting I believe it was 73% of our

[1:41:42] employees said that they like their health insurance plan and I believe it

[1:41:46] was 55% said they would pay more to keep it. I may have those numbers wrong but

[1:41:52] the uh retirees were not surveyed. So, all I would say is somebody asked, I

[1:41:58] think Diane, about Westford residents. Would it be okay if I asked how many

[1:42:03] people in the room are Westford residents?

[1:42:06] » Would that be okay? >> Sure. I'm happy to ask on your behalf.

[1:42:09] Okay. >> Uh, just curious. You don't have to

[1:42:11] answer this question, but if you're a Westford resident, please raise your

[1:42:13] hand. >> Great. Thank you. So the reason why I

[1:42:18] asked that is because when I was the town manager, we had about 350

[1:42:23] town employees who were residents. And I know I always tried to hire residents

[1:42:28] when I could, but you know, we are residents. We were hit by pay as you

[1:42:33] throw. Some of us are on fixed incomes, most of us. So, I just think we got to

[1:42:39] really understand what we're doing to I'm advocating for retirees, but we

[1:42:44] really have to pay attention and give them more time than you make a decision

[1:42:49] one week and and um we hear a week and then we're into it. We need more time to

[1:42:54] be able to find out how this will impact us. So, thank you very much.

[1:43:00] [applause]

[1:43:05] » Great. Uh Jody, thank you very much for the questions and uh we do hope that

[1:43:09] with the new timeline that we are discussing here this evening that we'll

[1:43:13] provide that opportunity to make sure that everybody has the chance to ask

[1:43:17] questions and get answers um as we work through the public process that uh we

[1:43:23] have to follow in order to make a plan design change. So please try and stay

[1:43:27] engaged on that. Um do we have a question? One more

[1:43:31] question. Okay, >> we do have we have one more from Sandy

[1:43:34] Collins. You you answered this before. I'll give you a chance to do it once

[1:43:37] more. Can you assure us that if a plan change is made that retirees who live

[1:43:41] out of state will still have full coverage? It's already difficult to get

[1:43:44] a new provider.

[1:43:50] » I'm assuming if so if we we're if it depends on what the change is, right?

[1:43:55] So, if the health insurance trust decides to make plan design changes and

[1:44:00] and they they stay with Blue Cross Blue Shield, uh I don't expect you to lose

[1:44:05] your coverage. So, am I correct with that? Health insurance trust people.

[1:44:09] Correct. Thank you. Yeah. >> Uh any other questions on

[1:44:16] » question at the mic? >> No, I have some comments.

[1:44:19] » Okay. >> Um I'm going to repeat,

[1:44:21] » but Ellen, I have to say your question your comments sometimes come across as

[1:44:24] questions. Just so you know, [laughter] >> I'll I'll see.

[1:44:27] » Okay. >> Well, maybe I can mix them up and they

[1:44:30] can be enthusiastic exclamation. >> I just want to make sure that we we get

[1:44:34] you the answers you want. So, if it is a question, just frame it as a question.

[1:44:36] We'll be happy to try and answer. >> I actually want to revisit some of the

[1:44:39] data, some information that I sent to the select board and also some things

[1:44:44] that I saw in both the locked in and the hub report. So, um

[1:44:50] now I'm going to say this as a 54year town employee. So I am so proud

[1:44:55] obviously I'm still working here to be an employee of Westford and I've been in

[1:45:00] many a leadership group where every single department head in the room said

[1:45:05] the reason they were working for Westford was because of public service.

[1:45:10] It's a wonderful wonderful work ethic that we have in this town. I'm always

[1:45:14] proud to say no our tax rate is lower. you know, go on the website and look.

[1:45:20] And I love to tease people and tell them that we figure out the employee leave

[1:45:24] acrual to the 110,000th every week. Heaven forbid we should spend 110,000th

[1:45:31] of a penny that is not due one of our workers. Um,

[1:45:36] when I read the reports that we saw from my reading, the only health insurance

[1:45:44] that was actually solvent was Westford's Health Insurance Trust, not the GIC,

[1:45:51] not the other three that were listed. We had the only one that was not in

[1:45:57] deficit. When I look at the GIC and how it's

[1:46:01] subsidized by Commonwealth taxpayers, it's not sustainable.

[1:46:07] It we assume the liability of every member of every community that's in the

[1:46:13] GIC. We have to um we have to join it before we know the

[1:46:20] rate and we can't negotiate the rate that we're going to pay. When I look at

[1:46:26] how hard over five decades Westford has worked, and I went through gas shortages

[1:46:32] in the mid70s, the awful early 90s, we never made funds in the roaring 80s

[1:46:39] because of the limits that we had for where we could invest town funds and

[1:46:44] that was because that was prudent and that was legal. We went through the

[1:46:49] awful 90s, 2004, 2008. We've had so many setbacks and I can't even believe after

[1:46:56] so hard all the hard work we've done to keep Westford at a AAA bond rating and a

[1:47:04] fiscally managed community that we would consider the GIC.

[1:47:10] [applause]

[1:47:16] » Uh do we have another question online or is that

[1:47:19] » comment online? Uh to anyone wondering if their doctors are covered by GIC

[1:47:24] plans, GIC has a provider search. Uh Health New England.org/gic

[1:47:31] provider search. You can look it up on GIC's website.

[1:47:36] » Great. Gentleman at the mic. >> Uh just have a question from Mark from

[1:47:40] hub. Um what does the health insurance trust

[1:47:46] look like it's going to do year-over-year for the next three years?

[1:47:51] That's a big question. >> Yeah. So, so Mark, uh, let me take that

[1:47:55] first and then if I I need to interact or you need to interject. So, um, the

[1:48:00] health insurance trust looks at the rates every year. Um, health insurance

[1:48:05] across the board and every municipality or any private sector in the US really

[1:48:10] is going up year-over-year. So, we are tasked with ensuring that our trust has

[1:48:15] enough funds to make sure that we can afford our health insurance, but we

[1:48:20] generally don't look 3 to 5 years out because the trends are changing so

[1:48:26] quickly and the medical is changing so quickly. Mark, I don't know if you have

[1:48:30] anything else you wanted to add to that. >> Yeah, no, Chris, I think that's well

[1:48:35] said and and that's why we have to meet with the trust very regularly. So we

[1:48:39] meet um many times during the year to review the financials, review claim

[1:48:43] trends, specifically what's going on with Westford, but also what's going on

[1:48:49] in the overall healthcare economy. Um and uh we we take all that data just to

[1:48:56] help us forecast in advance. Um the best I could do as far as forecasting the

[1:49:02] next three years would be you know honestly just looking at general trend

[1:49:07] but you know your group is although it's a large organization it it can

[1:49:12] [clears throat] it's more of a roller coaster as far as peaks and valleys of

[1:49:15] where the healthcare costs go and and a lot can change between now the next

[1:49:20] three years. So, you know, as Chris mentioned, the health plans trust has

[1:49:24] been very um healthy and as the previous um um questioner had mentioned as well.

[1:49:32] And um you know, again, that's the trustees are very well educated and they

[1:49:38] do their best to keep their finger on the pulse of what's going on in the

[1:49:42] healthcare industry and their own plan to help make sure they don't ever run

[1:49:47] the deficit in the future. So, there's no dollar amount look

[1:49:53] looking forward. >> No, we definitely factor in health

[1:49:57] insurance um expenses in our five-year projection that we do. Um and Dan

[1:50:02] O'Donnell can speak to that a little bit, but there's no specific number that

[1:50:05] we can give you. >> Okay, thank you.

[1:50:10] » Uh great. Thank you for the question. How are we looking online for questions?

[1:50:13] Are we clear there or we have one in the way?

[1:50:16] We do that. >> Okay,

[1:50:20] » we have a comment. Uh, this is only one of the GIC providers, the same gentleman

[1:50:23] who posted the prior um the prior link. Uh, one of the GIC providers and that is

[1:50:29] based solely in Western Mass. That is not accurate. The GIC actually has

[1:50:32] several providers and individuals should go to www.mmass.govic.

[1:50:43] » Thank you. And that's again what my colleague Elizabeth was mentioning in

[1:50:47] terms of a great resource if you do want to learn a little bit more about the

[1:50:50] GIC. A lot of good information there. Uh are we is that another one or are we

[1:50:54] clear? All right. Any other questions from members of the audience?

[1:50:59] » Yes, you have your hand raised. Do you can you come down? Yep. Great. Thank

[1:51:03] you.

[1:51:07] » What happens what happens to the people that live out

[1:51:11] of state? I'm sorry just for the repeating closer

[1:51:14] to the mic. >> What happens to the people that live out

[1:51:17] of state with GIC?

[1:51:24] » So, as Elizabeth stated, there's many different options on the GIC website

[1:51:29] that um there's more narrow networks for people who live in Massachusetts.

[1:51:32] There's wider networks for people who live out of state. The costs do change

[1:51:36] based upon which plan you choose and which network you're in. Does Westford

[1:51:41] still cover us? >> Would Westford still cover you if we

[1:51:45] went to the GIC? >> Yes, there would be an employee

[1:51:48] contribution and an employer contribution. Yes.

[1:51:53] » Okay.

[1:51:56] » Yeah. Once again, um refer to Elizabeth's uh comment. Um you when you

[1:52:02] go and look at the FY27 plan offerings on mass.gov gov for GIC. It will give

[1:52:09] you a PDF that shows how the GIC plans are made available to where you live in

[1:52:15] the state of Massachusetts, outside of the state of Massachusetts, and when

[1:52:18] you're within the state of Massachusetts, it even breaks it down by

[1:52:21] county. And then it will show you which of the the different insurers are

[1:52:25] available to you depending on where you live. So, that information is there um

[1:52:29] if you are so interested in in looking into it. Uh any other questions at this

[1:52:35] point from members of the audience? Are we how are we online? Clear online.

[1:52:40] Okay. Uh do we have any closing remarks from members of the select board before

[1:52:44] I ask for a motion to adjurnn? Yeah, >> sure.

[1:52:53] So, it's come up a couple times about um the tax working group and I am the

[1:52:58] select board who uh select board member who is a part of that group. Um so, it

[1:53:03] is it is up to me to really know some of these dates. So, I just wanted to um let

[1:53:08] you know that our report's going to come out in September. That's the the due

[1:53:12] date there. And also that if you're looking for the most recent time that

[1:53:16] analysis was done um 2018. So just trying to again if you're looking for

[1:53:23] more information just to land some with some more specifics of your personal

[1:53:27] questions um those are two things I'll point you to. Look for uh the working

[1:53:31] group I'm a part of to report out in September. And uh if you want to know

[1:53:36] more of what Tom was explaining um from past findings, you're you're going to

[1:53:41] get data from 2018.

[1:53:48] » Okay. Thank you, Elizabeth. Okay. Before I close out, I just want to again uh

[1:53:53] talk about communication. So uh we have the ability to subscribe to alerts on

[1:54:00] our website. So you can subscribe to when a

[1:54:04] board or committee like the health insurance trust is posting their

[1:54:08] meetings. That's one way of staying involved. Um we will do our best to

[1:54:13] engage retirees as well. Our HR director does have email addresses that she can

[1:54:19] send uh information to. If you are aware of a colleague or fellow retiree that

[1:54:25] you know is not being made aware of what's going on, please let us know. I

[1:54:29] think the best place for that would be the town manager's office. Uh again, you

[1:54:34] can get them via phone or if they have the email address. Um we also are trying

[1:54:39] to really push our social media channels. So, of course, we post on our

[1:54:43] town website. We have news alerts just in general that go out through the

[1:54:46] town's news uh website, but we also have a Facebook page. We have a newly uh spun

[1:54:53] up Instagram. We are on X. So there's numerous ways that you guys can receive

[1:54:58] the information um in a more passive sense rather than trying to search it

[1:55:02] out. We will push stuff out to you. Uh so I I encourage everybody to try to

[1:55:06] make use of those communication channels and please let your fellow, you know,

[1:55:11] retirees and employees know about those options because the more we can inform

[1:55:15] everybody about these discussions, the better off we all will be. And I really

[1:55:20] truly believe that. So we welcome the feedback. Again, you can email the town

[1:55:25] manager's office or any of the select board. We really appreciate the time

[1:55:28] that folks took to send out the emails that they did over the last week or so.

[1:55:33] Um, I did get uh one email that said something along the lines, I hope that

[1:55:37] AI isn't reading these. Rest assured that we are reading them and we truly

[1:55:41] appreciate your thoughts and questions. Uh, it really makes for a much richer

[1:55:45] discussion. Um I do think out of some of those questions we have put together a

[1:55:49] frequently asked questions document that is available at the health insurance

[1:55:53] trust website is that what it is and and the select board packet for this. So

[1:55:58] that is also something that we will continue to probably develop as this

[1:56:02] conversation moves forward. Okay, one last call out for questions. Nothing

[1:56:08] online. Um Mark from hub, thank you very much for joining us this evening.

[1:56:13] Appreciate your feedback. Um, is there any questions or last words from the

[1:56:17] town manager? >> I just really appreciate everybody's

[1:56:21] time today um and the emails and comments. Uh, once again, it is likely

[1:56:27] that the health insurance trust is going to meet next Thursday afternoon. So, um,

[1:56:31] if you are interested, please mark that on your calendar now as just a

[1:56:34] placeholder. Um, and again, feel free to email tma westwardmma.gov. That reaches

[1:56:40] the town manager's office or select board westwardmma.gov. gov that reaches

[1:56:44] the select board as well as the town manager's office.

[1:56:49] » Okay, thank you very much Kristen and uh Mike just pointed out to me um

[1:56:55] you know some of people have done um an really nice job of framing the concerns

[1:57:00] that they have with this topic and that in some cases included you know putting

[1:57:05] forth some financial and medical information in the emails. Um those are

[1:57:11] those can be considered public documents. So, I just want to caution

[1:57:14] folks that um if you are going to share information, just keep that that in

[1:57:18] mind. Okay. Um Okay. With that said, uh I'm going to look for a motion to

[1:57:23] adjourn this meeting. >> Do I have a second? Okay. All those in

[1:57:27] favor, please say I. >> All right. This meeting is adjourned.

[1:57:30] Thank you very much for your time this evening and for everybody who attended

[1:57:33] online. We really appreciate you taking your time. Thank you.

Select Board Health Insurance Listening Session | July 23rd, 2026

Transcript