As an indicator of political trends, it is apparent from these filings that candidates value far more the Independence Party nomination than the once-influential Conservatives. A total of 611 signatures among four candidates were gathered on the Indy line compared to just 166 for the Cons. Working Families totaled just 45 signatures, but draw better at the polls.
Who’s your daddy?
In what has to be the most serious affront to Comptroller Elliott Auerbach’s constitutional authority to date, 160 recipients of county family healthcare coverage have refused to respond to a survey conducted by the watchdog earlier this year. Most of the protests came from the sheriff’s office, which took its case to the Public Employee Relations Board, claiming that any such inquiries should more properly be part of the negotiating process. PERB, which more often sides with unions, ruled that the comptroller had acted properly. An appeal is under way.
Even with only about 470 files in hand, Auerbach’s sleuths found levels of administrative incompetence that ought to have a bunch of people, from the top down, sent to the woodshed.
Auerbach chose to examine only family policies, which cost taxpayers upwards of $20,000 a year each. County health premiums come to more than $24 million a year, Auerbach reported.
The comptroller chose family policies in seeking to determine whether dependents listed were in fact eligible. What he found, he said, was a system run out of the county personnel department but under the direction of the executive, that really wasn’t much of a system. In some cases, he said, dependents were listed who had long grown to maturity or ex-spouses who had years ago flown the love nest. He said one recipient’s folder contained only one entry, his original application of 30 years ago.
The administration acted in typical fashion by attacking the messenger. At least he’s not being ignored.
County Comptroller Elliott Auerbach. (Photo by Dan Barton)
There is at least one bone to chew on, however. Auerbach, out of respect to the appeals process, listed the 160 recalcitrants under a “confidential” memo to the personnel department. Two of those names — I’ll respect Auerbach’s confidentiality here — were given to the media. An irate Auerbach wants to know by whom.
Auerbach’s only recourse is the legislature, which he has petitioned to consider a policy of regular review by the administration of family health policies on at least a biannual basis.
Auerbach doesn’t have too many friends in the legislature, after having challenged their mileage vouchers a few years ago. But there are some new faces these days, some of whom might seriously consider their constitutional duty of setting county policy.
Auerbach, whose ear is so close to the ground he has treadmarks on his face, may have tapped into a deep well of public resentment. Few if any workers in the private sector get employer-paid (for the most part) “Cadillac” health plans these days. To suspect that the county may be mismanaging its own healthcare system, which taxpayers fund, has to rankle.
