Tonawanda ensures lifetime health insurance for police, public works chiefs [The Buffalo News, N.Y.]

Jan. 27—Tonawanda's police chief and public works superintendent will keep their fully paid health insurance for life, upon retirement, under a new agreement with the city.

The two department heads were eligible to receive this benefit but were concerned they would lose it if they stayed past the end of 2023, city officials said, and that's why they asked to have the promised coverage memorialized in a formal arrangement.

Under the agreements passed by the Tonawanda Common Council earlier this month, Police Chief Robert Clontz and Public Works Superintendent Joseph Warthling Jr. will pay up to $1,000 annually toward their health insurance costs as long as they remain in office.

Tonawanda officials say the agreements ensure the men will stay in their jobs longer, providing the benefit of their experience to city residents for an extended period of time.

"They know what they're doing. And I'm not ready to have them leave yet. And they're not ready to retire," Mayor John White said. "So whether they stay a month, five months or 10 years, it's worth it for me."

All city employees hired before 2004 are eligible to receive fully paid health insurance for life upon their retirement, White said.

The benefit continues to apply to employees hired before that date who later leave a union job for a nonunion, management position, as was the case with Clontz and Warthling, he said.

The agreements approved by the Common Council on Jan. 3 won't cost the city any additional money, White contends, because city policy provided the benefit to the department heads.

Clontz and Warthling were both eligible to retire last year and, if they had, would have received the fully paid health insurance, City Attorney S. Michael Rua said.

The men were worried that if they delayed their departure from city employment into 2024, the Common Council could act to make them ineligible, Rua and White said.

"They were concerned that if they stayed past last year, and they were to retire, the city could change its policy and say, 'Hey, we're not giving anybody lifetime health insurance. We've changed it,' " Rua said.

If the city did take that step, it could have prompted the men to sue to preserve the benefit, he said.

November's election brought a new Council majority, led by three mainline Democrats out of the five Council members.

"They still wanted to have some comfort and I was willing to do the MOU," White said, referring to the memorandum of understanding reached with each department head.

Third Ward Council Member Sean M. Rautenstrauch, one of the Democrats, said as much as he wants to save taxpayers money he did support the agreements with Warthling and Clontz.

"In all fairness, I felt that they deserve to continue on with those benefits that they were promised," Rautenstrauch said.

The two department heads weren't previously required to contribute toward their health insurance but now will have to pay up to $1,000 annually for as long as they remain employed by the city.

Warthling is closer to retirement than Clontz, who became police chief last August, and this agreement also helps to ensure Warthling can work with and train his presumptive successor, Rautenstrauch said.

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