Grandinetti ‘almost paid back’ opt-out money

According to City Controller Maria Brown, Council member Kristen Grandinetti is faithfully paying back the $6,186 she was wrongly paid in health insurance opt out money and will have paid back the entire overage by the end of 2012.

“She has almost paid back the full amount,” Brown said adding that it is coming out of her city biweekly paychecks at more than $300 per check.

The Niagara Falls Reporter broke the story last December that Grandinetti had been wrongly listed on city health insurance opt-out paperwork, resulting in overpayments in 2011. She was listed as married. She is single with no dependents.

Niagara Falls city employees who have health insurance coverage through their spouse or from another job may accept a monetary payment if they opt out of taking the city's health insurance coverage.

Grandinetti, a school teacher, has health insurance coverage provided through the Niagara Falls School District and chose to take the opt out payment from the city.

The problem was Grandinetti is a single woman without children and qualified for the single-person plan that would have given her a lower opt-out payment of $3,527.

Grandinetti's overpayment came to light after the Reporter obtained an e-mail from Controller Maria Brown leaked to the Reporter and dated Dec. 2, 2011, with the subject heading, "Confidential: opt out information."

Brown's e-mail begins: "I just notice Kristen's amount is wrong. It is at FAMILY. I guess everyone just assumed she is married. Her amount should be $3,276.04 Health and $252 Dental for a total of 3527.04 not $9,713.16."

Following the Reporter publishing the leaked email, most other local media reported the overage and City Hall officials rushed to defend Grandinetti.

Mayor Dyster said the error was due to "an oversight in the city's Human Resources Department" when they mistakenly registered Grandinetti under the "family" category.

"I was very surprised when I found out about it," Grandinetti told the Buffalo News. "I'm upset and concerned that people would think I would do something like this purposely."

While city employees can get up to $9,713 per year not to take health insurance from the city, other municipalities pay between $1,000 and $3,000 per year.

Niagara Falls pays the highest opt out amounts in western New York according to study of municipalities conducted by the Buffalo News.

“I think the average person looking at that says, 'That's too much,'" Mayor Dyster told the Buffalo News about the high opt-out Niagara Falls pays. "I think they're obviously large by comparison to payments being made by other places, but that's what was agreed in the (union contracts.)"

What was not mentioned is that it was Dyster who negotiated the figure and signed off with unions to pay it in 2010. Grandinetti and 44 others received a total of $420,097 -- not for health insurance -- but for not taking health insurance with the city.