Town Hall Annex @ 3:00 pm

Committee Members Present: Colette Worsman, Selectmen’s Rep

Peter Brothers, Selectmen’s Rep

Monica Bennett, DPW / Chairperson

Kevin Wheeler, Assessing

Carol M. Granfield, Town Manager

Committee Members Absent with Notice: Bob Hill, Water & Sewer Superintendent

Public in Attendance: Jim Hughes

Bonnie Ireland

Wynette DeGroot

Meeting called to order: Chairman Monica Bennett opened the meeting at 3:05 pm.

Review and Approval of Minutes from the last meeting: Carol Granfield made the motion to accept the minutes of August 3, 2006 as presented, Monica Bennett seconded, vote unanimous – with two abstentions Peter Brothers and Colette Worsman who were absent.

Discussion: Carol Granfield updated the Committee that she had a question from a retiree as to why a committee member was not included. Monica Bennett stated that she felt that this Committee has kept all the retirees in mind while going through the process.

Discussion & Review of Information Presented to Date: Colette Worsman asked for clarification on exactly what brokers offer. Carol Granfield spoke that brokers are useful when going out for bid when a large number of vendors may be solicited for a product. IPG presented the range of products that they provide. Kevin Wheeler indicated he felt our options are limited in scope and that this Committee should be able to make a good decision. Peter Brothers stated that understanding the number of carriers that are available, brokers would not be beneficial. Peter Brothers had a question in reference to the total risk management issue and whether that is affected if the Town were to pull out of the LGC package. Carol Granfield indicated that there would be a cost to split up the health, dental, workers’ compensation and property liability insurance. Peter Brothers indicated that we should be mindful of looking at packages to try to stabilize values for more than one year. Carol indicated that the Town would continue to pay a certain percentage of the health benefit and employees would have an option of plan choice. Colette Worsman asked whether the Town has looked at other carriers for liability insurance and worker’s compensation for cost. At this time the charge of the committee has been to look at health and dental and not the other insurance costs. Kevin Wheeler stated that he felt we need to get the costs of these different plans before looking at the other insurance costs.

Peter Brothers brought forward the issue of whether we have the expertise and time to fully understand and ascertain all of the information needed to make decision. His question is whether we have the resources to handle negotiation and packages. Carol and Brenda spoke to the issue that internally the town would still be responsible for collecting and supplying all of the information for quotes. Monica Bennett suggested that the next step should be to get pricing

Colette Worsman made a motion to solicit bids from Primex, Cigna/NH School Health Care, Local Government Center and other carriers for health care and package options for a January start date, seconded by Monica Bennett. Vote was unanimous. Brenda Vittner made the motion to solicit bids from NH Delta Dental and other carriers for dental insurance for a January start date, seconded by Carol Granfield. Vote was unanimous.

Jim Hughes spoke in reference to the differences between property, liability, casualty and health care insurance. He feels that it is important to be sincere when looking for quotes and not being on a fishing trip. Jim also spoke that the solicitation should be in the form of an RFP (Request for Proposal) and within the proposal provide the current level of provided benefits and request bidders to provide a quote based upon equal or exceeding coverage, with a compare and contrast of benefits. Jim also brought up the issue of broker of record letters and to be sure that the issue was to provide the best number of bidding and not be locked into a specific broker. Bonnie Ireland commented that the Town has two other choices in NH now besides Delta Dental for dental insurance coverage.

Action Items: Preparation of RFP’s for bidding process, request in writing the census and claims information for LGC for the RFP’s.

Next Meeting: Next meeting will be commenced at the discretion of the Chairman based upon the RFP schedule.

Adjournment: Colette Worsman made a motion to adjourn, Peter Brothers seconded, all in favor- unanimous.

Respectfully submitted:

Brenda L. Vittner

Brenda Vittner

Director of Administrative Services

DRAFT

Approved: October 24, 2006