Brockton Firefighters

Cheers went up from the standing-room only crowd inside City Council chambers and the overflow crowd that filled the entire third floor rotunda as, one-by-one, city councilors announced their intention to vote against making changes to the health insurance plans of municipal workers.

Councilor-at-large Todd Petti, who’s been on the council since 1997, said he had never seen the building so crowded for a meeting.

The vote in the City Council’s Finance Committee Monday night was a foregone conclusion about halfway into the two-hour debate on whether or not to adopt the state’s municipal health insurance reform law in Brockton.

If adopted, it would have given the city the authority to move all city and school employees into health insurance plans modeled after the state’s Group Insurance Commission plan.

City workers would have seen a reduction in weekly premiums but an increase in co-pays and the introduction of annual deductibles.

Once fully implemented, Chief Financial Officer John Condon said the reforms would save the city about $4.9 million.

Union workers flooded the email accounts of city councilors in protest of the proposal, which they saw as a blow to their collective bargaining rights over health insurance.

Representatives from the teachers and firefighters union reiterated their stance Monday that they are willing to talk about health insurance concessions, but want to do so within the bargaining system.

“I’ve gotten close to 100 emails on this,” Ward 6 Councilor Michelle DuBois said, adding, “I wish City Council was full like this every other week, then maybe some of my more progressive ideas would be passed.”

Condon made the argument that health care costs have eaten up all of the extra property taxes paid by city residents in the past 10 years, that the city is looking at a $12 million budget gap in the next fiscal year, and that no other area of the budget offers as much potential for savings except for employee salaries, three-fourths of which are paid to police officers and firefighters.

But councilors unanimously voted to reject the state’s alternate route for health care reform and keep the city health plans part of the traditional collective bargaining.

“The state’s plan is awful,” said Ward 5 Councilor Dennis DeNapoli. “I lost my health insurance (with Kodak), and now I have it with the City of Brockton, and I don’t want to change.”

Ward 7’s Chris MacMillan got into a verbal back-and-forth with Condon late in the meeting.

When MacMillan asked Condon whether he estimated a budget gap of $12 million, Condon replied, “You heard it.”

MacMillan took exception and said, “You heard it?’ What, you’re getting a little bitter now?”

MacMillan went on to say that he didn’t accept the $12 million figure.

“I don’t see it coming like this. If it is, sit down with the unions. They’re willing to negotiate ... Don’t throw this in our laps and say if you don’t pass this tonight we’re going to lay people off, because that’s a bunch of bull,” he said.

The crowd began cheering at that point, and Council President Tom Brophy gaveled the meeting back to order.

As the clapping faded, Condon replied, “I think your assessment of the situation is as you characterized it yourself.”

Brophy then interjected and attempted to move the discussion along when MacMillan said, “Go back to Bridgewater, too,” which drew more sharp strikes from Brophy’s gavel.

“People get hot; they get tired. Things happen,” said Mayor Linda Balzotti, dismissing the exchange after the meeting was over.

Condon said only that “I disagree with his perspective.”

Balzotti minimized the defeat after the meeting, saying that the law required the city to consider it and report back to the Massachusetts Department of Administration and Finance and that it was her obligation to put it before the Council.

“I’m not disappointed,” she said. “My job was to put it forward ... The information got aired, people knew what was going on. Councilors made the decision. Now we have commitments from the unions that they’re willing to work with us, so we’ll move forward.”

With the Finance Committee’s vote, the measure now moves to the full City Council next week, where the same 11 councilors are expected to cast the final votes to defeat the proposal.