AUBURN — Behind-the-scenes personnel who work for Androscoggin County — clerks, maintenance workers and other unelected, nonunion personnel — may be entitled to lifetime health care benefits.

But they need to have been hired before 2005 and serve a minimum of eight consecutive years in those jobs, the three-member County Commission decided Wednesday.

In a 2-1 vote, the commission passed a new policy spelling out the exact benefits for the unelected, nonunion jobs before they get added to the ongoing controversy.

“This was an opportunity to put it in black and white,” Commissioner Jonathan LaBonte said Friday. 

The issue of lifetime health care has been battled among other groups of Androscoggin County employees: among elected officials and union workers. The county is facing a lawsuit over coverage for surviving spouses, and meetings with former elected officials have drawn dozens of people.

In 2004, commissioners voted to end the now-controversial benefit but grandfathered it for people hired before 2005. That ruling affected all nonunion personnel, including the elected positions of treasurer and the registers of probate and deeds.

Elaine Makas, who voted with LaBonte to pass the new policy, said it was crafted as a kind of compromise.

“I wanted to leave things the way they were, but that was not going to happen,” she said. 

She, too, hopes the change will avoid some controversy.

“We’ve been tangled up in this mess for two years,” she said.

Under the new rule, employees categorized as “general government” personnel hired before 2005 and continuing in their jobs for 20 years earn 50 percent coverage for their spouse on retirement. At 25 years, the benefit expands to include full coverage.

Chairman Randall Greenwood opposed the measure.

“I think it was too generous,” Greenwood, who has been a vocal opponent of lifetime health care benefits for elected officials, said. That issue was not addressed in the new policy.

In all, 16 workers could be affected by the policy, Makas said.

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