Sheffield Selectboard cuts insurance stipend for full-time staff

The Sheffield Selectboard voted July 15 to reduce the weekly insurance stipend paid to full-time employees who decline town health coverage, lowering it from $280 to $175 per week. The change is part of a broader revision of the town's employee benefit package.

Chairperson Erik Lavallee proposed the cut during a special meeting at the Municipal Building, with board member Ben Robinson agreeing to the $175 figure. The board left the previously approved paid-time-off schedule unchanged. According to draft minutes, the new stipend will take effect once the benefit package and updated employee policy are formally adopted, with payments expected to begin in late August or early September.

Board member Kate Berry-Buonanno recused herself from the full-time benefits discussion and vote. Lavallee then recused himself when the board turned to a separate benefits package for part-time Town Clerk and Assistant Town Clerk positions. For those roles, the board voted to eliminate the insurance stipend and instead allow new part-time hires who decline coverage to choose a town-funded reimbursement arrangement for health costs, modeled on the setup Town Clerk Erika Lavallee said she has used under her own employment terms. Employees already covered under the town's prior policy may keep that arrangement.

The board also voted to adopt a revised employee handbook incorporating both benefit changes, along with new language clarifying that town-provided insurance coverage ranges from a single-person plan to a family plan.

In other business, the board reviewed a written resolution on an ethics complaint compiled by Town Clerk Erika Lavallee and Carolyn Crankshaw. Berry-Buonanno said she felt personally attacked at a prior meeting over a claim that she had orchestrated the employee benefits package, and stated she has since completed ethics training and now recognizes she should have recused herself from that earlier discussion. Lavallee said the episode was a learning experience and that board members would need to be more cautious in future discussions.

The board voted to hire a minutes clerk on an as-needed basis at $150 per meeting to assist with writing policies and agendas. Lavallee said the board is looking for someone to help with clerical duties but had no candidate lined up as of the meeting.

With the Nov. 3 election approaching, the board voted to allow ballots listing Justice of the Peace nominees to be mailed to every registered voter.

Originally reported by North Star Monthly.

Photo: Andri Kyrychok via Unsplash. Photo is illustrative and not from the scene.