COGE ignores retirees

To the editor:

The Commission on Government Efficiency has issued a preliminary report.

It reveals no outreach to retirees and glosses over health benefits.

COGE is “keen on a comprehensive external engagement approach to reach people from all corners of the city.”

While noting that “City workers are the experts in the processes they run,” COGE ignores that retirees are also experts, e.g., on the consequences of the drained Health Insurance Stabilization Fund, which has resulted in burdensome copays and the attempted push into Medicare Advantage.

The announcement of public hearings in The City Record stated that “New Yorkers from any of the five boroughs may testify” in person or via Zoom, ignoring that many retirees live elsewhere.

The Office of Mass Engagement’s “Organize NYC” initiative mobilized residents to attend Rent Guidelines Board public hearings, but failed to target anyone to attend COGE hearings.

Tascha Van Auken, the Office of Mass Engagement Commissioner, told the New Yorker of the importance of “Treating people like smart people who have agency, who can be there or not.” So why marginalize retirees?

In the budget chapter, only two sentences are devoted to health benefits: “In 2007 the City created the Retiree Health Benefits Trust to officially hold funds for retired City workers, but in effect has used the RHBT as a reserve account. Fiscal monitors conventionally treat the Retiree Health Benefits Trust as a reserve account.”

(No mention that it was raided for budget relief.)

Also omitted is that an audit found the Health Insurance Stabilization Fund to be mismanaged and insolvent.

This may spare COGE member Henry Garrido embarrassment, as the Municipal Labor Committee bears some responsibility for this, for which he serves as the Acting Chair. (Mr. Garrido called the audit “a political stunt” and the MLC disagreed with the findings.)

COGE could do better.

Harry Weiner