Commissioner plays catch-up on LWSC health-insurance deal

LYNN – Water and Sewer Commissioner David Ellis fell almost nine months behind on out-of-pocket payments on a commission health insurance plan before dropping a check for $1,900 off with Water and Sewer officials on Wednesday.?I owe nothing to Water and Sewer. I am on target with my payment plan,” Ellis said on Wednesday.But that was not the case Tuesday when Water and Sewer Treasurer David Travers said the last out-of-pocket payment Ellis made on his HMO Family Plan dated back to June 2014.?He?s a little slow to come up with his pro rata share,” Travers said.Like Ellis, 70 Water and Sewer employees contribute to the cost of the health insurance provided by the commission; but, unlike Ellis, that contribution is a $117-a-week paycheck deduction for employees who are covered by a family plan.Based on a 17.5 percent contribution rate, Ellis? contribution requirement toward his $30,000 commission HMO plan totals $6,000. The entire $3,500 stipend he receives as a commissioner goes toward that contribution, said Travers, along with an additional $212 a month he contributes out of pocket.Water and Sewer Director Daniel O?Neill said Ellis? out-of-pocket payment schedule differs from the health insurance contribution schedule for commission employees.?In reality, he should be a month ahead. He should have a check for $212 on the first day of the month,” O?Neill said.Elllis declined to state, citing privacy reasons, when and under what conditions he arranged to make out-of-pocket payments on part of his insurance. O?Neill said Ellis enrolled in the family plan following his appointment to the commission in 2011 by Mayor Judith Flanagan Kennedy.?I don?t think there was any written agreement. I was under the understanding that Dave Travers gives him a quarterly bill and he owes $212 a month,” O?Neill said.Ellis? fellow commissioners Wayne Lozzi and Peter Capano are not enrolled in commission health plans. Commissioners Walter Proodian and William Trahant Sr. are signed up for commission Medex plans that O?Neill said are deducted from their $3,500 annual stipends.Ellis on Tuesday said he pays the out-of-pocket portion of his health insurance after he receives a statement from Travers.?When I do, I pay it,” he said.But Travers said Ellis “has a history of paying in a lump sum” for his out-of-pocket insurance contribution.Ellis characterized questions about his health insurance contributions as “retaliatory” in response to his decision to question, during the commission?s March meeting, a plan to hand over catch basin cleaning work to private contractors. That proposal was scrapped in favor of a joint union-management review.?I?m a target,” he said.