Stipends for Elected Officials: A Closer Look

by William Dowd 1/29/12

As budget review season continues, lots of time will spent on some really big numbers. To their credit, the Finance Committee will also spend lots of time on some smaller numbers too. But sometimes, numbers that look small can be deceiving.

 For example, take stipends for elected officials. Some boards/committees take monetary stipends, some do not. Here are the elected officials and boards -- other than the Town Clerk which is a full-time position -- whose members are authorized to take a monetary stipend and the total amount for stipends in the current year's budget. This is not the amount each person receives, but the total for the Board. Some members of these Boards may be refusing the stipend:
Moderator                               $     25
Selectmen                               $   175
Board of Health                        $     90
Assessors                                $7,500
Water Commissioners               $   100

Here's the list of elected boards/committees NOT currently authorized to take a monetary stipend:
School Committee
Finance Committee
Housing Authority
Library Trustees
Park Commission
Planning Board

Why do some get a stipend and others don't? No one seems to have an answer. What is the purpose of the stipend? Again, no one seems to have an answer. The most common response is "It's being going on for a long time."

If you add all the stipends up, you're still talking about a pretty small number. But that's where looks are deceiving. Besides the disparate practice and the randomly varying amounts, there  are two aspects of these stipends that make them much more significant than they initially appear.

First, according to the infamous Mass General Laws Chapter 32B, just taking the stipend makes the elected official eligible for 60% Town paid health insurance. Just taking a random and nominal stipend payment opens the Town up to a potential $12,000 to $16,000 annual expense. This may have made sense back in the 1960's, but it makes no sense today. And the way the Town structures its budget, these health care costs don't show up in the elected board's budget. They show up in the Benefits and Insurance budget along with the costs for all Town employees. And this is NOT a theoretical problem. Even after Jay Marsden leaves the Town's health insurance on February 1, there is still one elected official enrolled in Town health insurance.

Second, the stipend payment policy and amounts are left to each board to decide for itself. No Town Meeting action is required. No By-Laws to amend. It's just bad public policy when an elected board  or committee is authorized to a.) decide whether or not to pay itself a stipend, and b.) set the amount of that stipend. The FinCom's response to all this was that they have no say over stipends. If a board decides to pay itself a stipend, as long as it fits within the "guideline" budget, it's ok with them.
I can't make any sense of the stipend practice, and most of the people I've talked to knew nothing of it, particularly that very small honoraria could trigger thousands of dollars in health insurance benefits.

I suggest that the stipend policy and amount be made a matter subject to Town Meeting approval. Any Board seeking to pay itself a stipend can put together a proposal that describes what it's for and how much and let Town Meeting decide. Town Meeting has to approve by 80% majority to pay old bills, the Selectmen have to get Town Meeting approval to auction off an old broken down pickup truck, and the pay rate for all non-union, non-contract positions are subject to vote of Town Meeting.  Shouldn't Town Meeting get a say on paying stipends to elected officials, especially with expensive health benefits that could go along with it?

I'm not sure how to fix this right now, but I'll be looking for a way to give Town Meeting a voice in the matter, particularly since the current arrangement is random, improperly authorized and a trigger for potentially thousands of dollars in health insurance costs. Even if Chapter 32B gets fixed to end the link between stipends and health insurance, I just think the voters in Town deserve to have a say in who gets a stipend, and how much it is.
 

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