At the August 12, 2014 Board meeting, the Board was forced to make an uninformed decision regarding the health care plan for Township employees.  The Township employee health care plans take effect on September 1 each year.  The Board decided to ‘opt out’ of the cost share obligation of Public Act 152 of 2011, and continue the current coverage for employees. This decision was made since no one on staff looked at alternatives in time for the September 1 deadline.  They also had not looked at the carry-over plan that was approved.  The Board had virtually no time to review or make an informed decision on this matter.  This is clearly an example of poor planning on the part of our Supervisor and Township Manager.

John Giannagelli indicated that he was disappointed that they had to ‘opt out’.  He thought that maybe the 152 plan options would have been better for the Township.  Supervisor Gonser then stated:

“Unfortunately, this was not identified earlier… really last year.  It was completely missed”

Here is a video of that discussion:

Why is this important to the citizens of Oakland Township?  Terry Gonser continues to deflect any criticism on issues for which he bares responsibility.  Attempting to blame this issue on someone (our former Manager) from over a year ago does not pass the credibility test (sounds like Washington doesn’t it).

The current manager, Ann Capela, has been on staff since February, and certainly should have been able to investigate the health care options during the past 6 months.

Our supervisor has repeatedly stated how many hours he spends at the Township Hall.  His presence may actually be preventing our Township Manager from doing her work. Gonser needs to get out of the way, and let the staff do their work.  He also needs to stop blaming others.

I was once told, “Poor planning does not constitute an emergency!”  This is clearly a case of ‘poor planning’, yet our Supervisor continues to ‘fire’ the experienced planning individuals on our Planning Commission, and wants to provide the Planning Commission with his ‘strategic planning vision’.  Does he merit that trust? I think NOT!

Richard Michalski