Mayor’s Stress Disability Claim Stirs Concerns : Santa Paula: Some question how the auto insurance salesman can function in his new City Hall role after filing this spring.

Some Santa Paula residents are questioning how newly chosen Mayor Wayne Johnson can collect money for a work-related stress disability claim he filed in May while still meeting the day-to-day demands of the mayor’s job.

Johnson, 53, an insurance salesman for the California Automobile Assn. in Ventura, filed the claim this spring after experiencing chest pains at work. Johnson, who has served on the Santa Paula City Council since 1990, had heart bypass surgery in 1986.

On Monday, City Council members by a 3-2 vote chose Johnson to serve a one-year term as the city’s mayor. The position is largely ceremonial.

“Generally, the City Council is not a stressful place,” Johnson said Friday. “Granted, this week has been stressful, but there are a whole bunch of different stresses, and how you react to one isn’t the same to how you react to another. I think the pride and honor I get from serving on the council is a cushion to the stress.”

In California, salespeople top the list of individuals filing for workers’ compensation stress disability payments, said Bill Molmen chief counsel of the California Workers’ Compensation Institute, a nonprofit group that reviews workers’ compensation laws for insurance companies.

Although Johnson received his doctor’s approval to take on the mayor’s position, some Santa Paula residents have raised concerns about his ability to handle the pressure because of the claim.

“Frankly, I have an ethical problem with it,” said Steve Smead, a Santa Paula insurance agent. “I can’t see how a doctor can sign on a dotted line saying that being the mayor is less stressful than an auto club insurance salesman.”

In a brief statement delivered shortly after he was sworn in, Johnson tried to quell concerns about his readiness for the job.

“My relationship between my employer and me is a private matter,” the statement read. “It has no bearing on my ability or performance on the City Council. I am serving this honorable position with the full cooperation and encouragement of my physician.”

In an interview Friday, Johnson acknowledged that his statement did not clear up the controversy.

Johnson said he consulted City Atty. Phil Romney before Monday’s meeting on whether it was proper to serve as mayor while collecting disability payments.

Romney said Friday he reassured Johnson that as long as his doctor approved, he was within the guidelines of the state’s complex workers’ compensation laws. State law does not preclude individuals from working at one job while being on paid stress disability leave from another job, Romney said.

Still a few residents of Santa Paula said they are uncomfortable with the idea.

“I don’t think it’s right,” said Jim McCoy, a former mayor and City Council member. McCoy argued that if stress prevented Johnson from working for the insurance company, stress should prevent him from working for the city. “I guarantee you that being mayor is a lot more stressful than selling car insurance.”

McCoy served one term as mayor during his eight years on the council in the late 1970s and early 1980s. After Johnson read his statement at Monday’s meeting, McCoy said the new mayor should be specific on the nature of the disability.

On Friday, Johnson said his condition was caused both by stress and his existing heart problems. After he started having chest pains on the job, Johnson said, his doctor recommended in May that he file for stress disability. He is on leave with full benefits, he said.

Johnson said he was reluctant to discuss his claim for fear that it could damage ongoing negotiations with his company over benefits and whether he will return to work, but he also said he wanted to explain how he could collect the stress disability payment while still serving as mayor.

While his new position will include added responsibility, Johnson said it will not be much more work than being a City Council member.

“Since I left (work) in May I haven’t had any more chest pains,” Johnson said. “I’m convinced my doctor made the right decision.”

Guy Wysinger, Johnson’s supervisor at the automobile association, said that over Johnson’s 31 years with the company, he has always been a hard worker who made time for local government. While working full time as an insurance salesman, Johnson served for eight years as the chairman of the Santa Paula Housing Authority and was chairman for two of his five years on the Planning Commission.

“He’s always been involved in community-oriented positions,” Wysinger said.

Wysinger added that he did not think being mayor precluded Johnson from accepting stress-disability pay. “I don’t see a conflict with him being on the council,” Wysinger said.

Since he took over as mayor, Johnson conceded he has been a little stressed out in what usually is a low-key job.

“If you were elected mayor and you had this thrown at you on your first day, you would be too,” he said.