Dear Editor:

I've read with great interest the Register's coverage of the town of Boothbay's attempt to save a few bucks at the expense of changing their employees' retirement program contribution formula.

After having worked for over 35 years in the people management field one thing you learn very quickly (as perhaps our young town manager has) is that you don't just reduce or take something away from employees without it negatively impacting both public perception and morale.

True, the benefit may have been a short-term fix that got a previous administration off the hook and which failed to look at the long-term ramifications. But that's not the point. The point is that grandfathering what's already there and adjusting for future employees makes sense where the amount of money involved now and especially in the future is minimal.

Taking away from those already on the plan does not make sense unless willing, for whatever reason, to be the target of much resentment and negative press.

A postscript to this debacle is that, in my experience, a 10 percent contribution to a retirement program without any contribution by the employee is a very, very generous policy. Even a 9 percent-1 percent match is by most standards well above the norm. But to the employees involved it matters not. And to our town officials, a $5k savings just isn't worth the grief.

Now the healthcare issue: that's a runaway train and another story for another time.

Dennis Brown
Villa Rica, Ga., and Boothbay