Your Turn

John Talty
Your Turn

I would like to respond to the article Dan Woska commented on in the May 2 issue of the Brick Bulletin. First, I would like to say I find his comments as misinformed in this article as the hideous midnight mailer he sent out before the Board of Education election.

Mr. Woska and his previous board member friend, John Bendokas, seem to make false statements regarding the incredible savings the Talty/Kight board made on the health care broker we helped to select. We used a fair and open process to make this selection, something not practiced very often in the past.

Horizon, our health care company, paid the Woska/Bendokas company friend Delaware Valley Financial Group $632,240 as the health care broker for the school district during their last three years. That's an average of $211,000 a year. This is without our going out for competitive bids, considering this demonstrates an average of 14.3 percent increase in renewal premiums every year.

This means Brick taxpayers paid 14.3 percent more every year for the same services. For example, Horizon paid Delaware Valley Financial Group $222,375 during the school year 2004-05. In that year alone, the renewal increase was 12.5 percent, which translates into spending $2,125,500 more on health care insurance using Mr. Woska's former broker.

Compare the choice the Talty/Kight board made by going out for competitive bids and choosing Commerce Insurance Group. During the 2005-06 school years, Commerce was paid by Horizon $72,000 for nine months of service. At renewal time, Commerce Insurance Group presented the school district with a 5.5 percent renewal rate, which comes out to a savings for the school district of $1.5 million dollars versus the former broker. This is the lowest renewal rate ever experienced by this district from Horizon in over a decade.

The Talty/Kight board rewarded Commerce Insurance for a job well done with a new contract for the same price, only this time it was for a full year, not just nine months, which came to $96,000. The total compensation paid to Commerce, including the health care, prescription and dental plans, totaled $150,000.

For anyone not familiar with insurance, prescription and dental are extra and not included in general health care costs. Comparing this to the 2004-05 school year, that demonstrates a savings again of $72,000.

The savings for the 2006-07 year was $1.5 million, which the school district could then use for computers, books and other items without further overburdening taxpayers. The renewal (increase) rate for the year 2007-08 is 0 percent, which translates into a savings of over $1 million for the district. Commerce's compensation will be the same as the previous year - $150,000.

That's much different than Mr. Woska's figures. I have the documentation and will be happy to provide it to any taxpayer that wishes to view it. The board was pleased with this performance. Who wouldn't be? Commerce was voted in by the new board to continue as our health care broker.

Woska and Reinhold accuse us of funneling tax dollars to the Toms River political machine. This is totally NOT true. Yes, we hired attorneys and health and non-health care brokers who work in Toms River. What they didn't tell you is that our attorneys saved us over $100,000 in the last two years while resolving all of our special education lawsuits. Our non-health care broker saved us thousands of dollars in renewal (increased) cost. The savings, over $2.5 million, stayed here in Brick.

Another lie by Woska and Reinhold was micromanaging the school, instructional and administrative staff. I did ask a lot of questions. Some administrators did not like that, but that was my job as your elected rep to the board.

I did recommend to the board, business administrator and superintendent that we have an operational audit done on the transportation department, as I saw it as very inefficient. This audit is complete and will show, unfortunately, the student transportation program appears to represent one of the most challenged systems that TAS has reviewed. These results are not because we micromanaged but because we did the job that we were elected to do.

I would also like to clarify a lawsuit which included board member Cynthia McCarthy. This lawsuit was settled in a professional manner by board attorney Thomas Monahan. He recommended the case be settled. Mr.Woska sat in that meeting and heard every word Mr. Monahan said it would cost the taxpayers of Brick Township over $100,000 to fight this lawsuit in federal court. His recommendation was to settle the suit for the $10,000.

Mr. Woska stated this lawsuit was close to being settled in favor of the district, which wasn't true. Why would Monahan make a recommendation to settle if he knew he was going to win this suit? He also hinted that a deal was cut and the $10,000 was used to fund Mrs. McCarthy's election run for the Board of Education. That is an out-and-out lie.

I would welcome Mr. Woska and Mrs. Reinhold to sit down with our new business administrator and become educated on what has been accomplished by this board in the last two years. I will challenge them to be adults with integrity and apologize and admit that they were wrong. Let's see who has ethics and integrity now.

John Talty

Brick Township