County Ranks High in Disability Retirement Payouts

Ventura County pays out about $9.5 million each year in disability retirement benefits, and for years has ranked among the highest in the state for its percentage of disabled pensioners.

More than half of the county’s disability pension payments go to public safety workers who have been injured on the job, a survey by The Times has found.

In fact, almost half of the county’s 498 retired public safety workers are receiving lifetime disability pensions, many for such problems as shoulder, back and knee injuries.

Despite the high payouts--unheard of in private industry except in cases of total disability--officials say they are limited in what they can do to bring down costs because of outdated state laws that give the county’s retirement board little discretionary power.

“The board is disturbed about having to grant disability pensions in many instances,” said Van Perris, who manages the county retirement system. “But their hands are tied. The law is the law.”

Also contributing to pension costs are strict policies by both the sheriff’s and fire departments against creating permanent desk jobs or “light-duty” positions for injured workers, which often result in forced retirements.

“If a person is legitimately injured and can’t perform the duties of the job, we can’t let them stay here because of the high demands,” fire Chief James Sewell said. “They have to be able to perform a full range of duties, including putting out fires.”

The county has historically had a high percentage of disability pensioners compared with the overall number of retirees, the survey found. Out of 2,744 current retirees, for instance, 565 or 20.5% have disability pensions.

Between 1980 and 1992, the county had an average of 24% of its retirees receiving disability benefits, the highest percentage of any county in California, according to state records. In 1992--the most recent period for which statewide figures are available--Ventura County, with 22.1%, ranked second only behind Kern County.

Officials warn that the figures can be misleading because of varying reporting methods and the fact some other counties have smaller sheriff’s and fire departments or, in some cases, none at all.

Although there has been a slight decrease in recent years, Ventura County officials acknowledge the number of disability retirement cases here remains unusually high. Of particular concern, they say, are the 395 employees who have retired with job-related injuries and who account for $7.8 million in annual disability payments.

“Obviously, I’m concerned about the costs,” said Supervisor Frank Schillo, who also serves on the county retirement board. “We have a sufficient problem, and we need to take some steps to try and rectify it. We have to find ways to reduce the number of people disabled on the job.”

One solution, Schillo suggested, might be to require regular physical exams or some type of agility tests for public safety employees as a preventive measure. The county Fire Department is already looking at implementing such a program.

Another way to bring down retirement costs is to find alternative jobs within the county for those employees who are still capable of working despite their injuries, Perris said. This approach, however, would depend on the cooperation of county departments as well as the injured employees.

“Right now a person doesn’t have to accept an alternative position,” Perris said. “And I guess that’s really the flaw in the law.”

A close examination of the county’s disability retirement program reveals a complex, often bewildering system bound by strict state laws that give local officials little flexibility when it comes to placing injured workers in alternative jobs or in awarding pension benefits in individual cases.

For example, an employee who retires with job-related injuries and later goes back to work may still collect full disability benefits. The time an individual has been employed by the county--whether it is one day or 30 years--is not a factor in calculating benefits.

And, unlike benefits provided through workers’ compensation insurance, disability payments are for life, not just for a fixed time period. There also is no sliding scale of payments based on the severity of a person’s injury, as with workers’ compensation.

Under current state law, every city, county and state employee who suffers a “disabling” injury on the job is entitled to the same benefit: half of their regular salary, tax free, for life.

“The disability benefit plan has a defined formula,” Perris said. “So a [law enforcement officer] who loses his trigger finger has the same entitlement as an individual who has been shot and paralyzed.”

In comparison, employees who have been with the county five years and who suffer non-job-related injuries or illnesses are eligible to receive a maximum of one-third of their salary in retirement benefits, and that money is taxable.

Disability retirement money comes from a combination of employee and county contributions as well as earnings on investments of the county’s pension system.

The public disability retirement system is extremely generous compared with that of the private sector when it comes to job-related injuries. Most private firms have their own insurance plans and award disability benefits strictly as a percentage of one year’s salary based on an employee’s injured body part, age and occupation.

For instance, a truck driver who is also a loader and suffers a permanent back injury may be found to be 30% disabled and given a nontaxable award of $20,000. But that is the total amount of cash benefits the employee would get.

The only time an employee would get lifetime benefits, as in the public sector, is when the individual has been found to be “100%” disabled.

Public Safety

The county spends more than $5.8 million annually on job-related disability retirement benefits for public safety members, more than any other employee group. Public safety includes sheriff and fire personnel as well as district attorney investigators.

Under state law, public safety members are the only employee group in which heart conditions are automatically presumed to be job-related due to stress. And unlike some other county employees, they are entitled to receive up to a 3% annual cost-of-living raise on their disability benefits.

Of the 293 retired sheriff and district attorney investigators, 128 are out on job-connected disabilities, records show.

The numbers are even greater in the county Fire Department. In fact, there are more retired fire workers out on job injuries--114--than on regular retirement or non-job-related disability--91.

“It doesn’t surprise me that the numbers are as high as they are,” said fire Chief Sewell. “As a young firefighter, I fell through a roof and hurt my neck. I also had to have knee surgery.”

Chief Deputy Richard Rodriguez said the injuries in the Sheriff’s Department are also related to obvious dangers posed by the job.

“The fact that people get hurt speaks to the nature of the work,” Rodriguez said. “Police work is an enforcement function where potential conflict is an issue. So you expect incidences to be higher.”

But despite obvious hazards of the job, public safety disability claims often comprise back, knee and other orthopedic injuries that do not involve confrontations with criminals or fires, according to records of the state Workers’ Compensation Appeals Board.

Take the case of Eddie French, a county firefighter. French twisted and injured his right knee in 1993 when he stepped into a pothole on a dirt road while directing a fire truck as it was backing up, according to state records.

After undergoing surgery, French aggravated his injured knee a few months later during a training exercise.

No longer able to run, jump or perform other firefighter duties, French, who could not be reached for comment, retired last year at age 40. Under the formula set by state law, he was entitled to a tax-free disability pension of about $20,000 a year.

Then there is the case of Sheriff’s Deputy Preston Lanning. While investigating a vandalism incident at Westlake High School in 1992, according to state records, Lanning slipped and fell down a steep ravine, injuring his back, hands and right ankle.

Lanning underwent surgery on both his right and left wrists. The injuries and related surgery reduced the strength in his right hand, leaving him unable to handle a gun or help other deputies in fights.

In 1995, Lanning, at age 40, was granted disability retirement. Under state law, he was entitled to an annual disability pension of about $20,000. He declined comment.

In the last 14 months, a dozen public safety personnel have been granted service-connected disability benefits. They include eight sheriff’s deputies, three firefighters and one D.A.’s investigator.

The average age of retired public safety members with job-related disability pensions is 42, according to county records.

In some cases, a public safety employee who has suffered a permanent injury on the job may be suited for other, less physically demanding work. But the sheriff’s and fire departments have long-held policies against “permanent light-duty” positions.

“In public safety, you are specifically required to perform all functions of the job,” said Rodriguez of the Sheriff’s Department. “We need to have the ability to have available physically fit manpower to deal with the needs of the department.”

The policy of no permanent light-duty positions is typical of public safety agencies elsewhere.

Eligibility

To be eligible for service-connected disability retirement under the so-called 1937 Act--the state law which governs the county’s retirement system--an employee “must be permanently incapacitated physically or mentally for the performance of his duties.”

An employee who is granted disability benefits, however, is free to work at another job as long as he or she is willing and able. There are no limits on outside income.

“It doesn’t matter how much money you make or where you go to work,” Perris said. “None of that is measured in the equation.”

Consider the case of John Ford.

Hired as a field assistant with the county’s Agricultural Department in early 1989, Ford’s job consisted mainly of driving a truck and spraying weeds.

In January 1991, records show, Ford was rushed to the hospital after suffering an allergic reaction to Karmex, a weed-killing chemical. His symptoms included a swollen throat, shortness of breath, severe skin rash and swelling of the legs, hands and feet.

An examining doctor later concluded that Ford’s “disability requires no physical restriction but rather a restriction against work involving exposure to all chemicals used in pest control and the spraying of weeds.”

In other words, while Ford was unable to return to the same job, he was well-suited for an alternative position. The only catch was that under state law Ford would have to agree to take the job offered if it was outside his department and regular job duties.

Records show that the county offered him a night janitor’s job with the General Service Agency, which Ford refused. He said the county was upset with him because he had contacted state officials to report what he believed were lax safety procedures. County officials deny the allegations.

“They treated me like a big pariah,” he said. “But when it finally dawned on them that I was going to win my case, there was a half dozen job offers.”

Ford turned them all down. Instead, the then-26-year-old opted for a lifetime disability pension of $9,500 a year, documents show.

Even though he currently works as a Woodland Hills stockbroker, Ford said he believes he is still entitled to his disability pay.

“I’ve been told by two physicians that because of my exposure [to Karmex] I have an increased risk for cancer,” he said. “I see it as a very small trade-off for that.”

Then there is the case of Robert Hamlin. The former Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy transferred to the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department in 1989.

Six months into his new job, Hamlin was injured in a fight with an inmate at the County Jail, according to state records. Slapped on the head, he suffered severe damage to his inner left ear, permanently altering his equilibrium. Soon after, Hamlin said, he retired at age 35 on a disability pension of approximately $20,000 a year.

But while Hamlin’s injury kept him from returning to work as a sheriff’s deputy, it did not prevent his running earlier this year for the state Assembly--a job that pays $75,600 annually.

Hamlin, who spent more than $12,000 of his own money on the race, lost the election. But had he won, he would have been entitled to keep his disability benefits along with his salary as a full-time legislator.

“I wouldn’t have discontinued it,” Hamlin said. “I might have donated it to charity. Is that double dipping? I hadn’t even thought about it.”

Ken Oeschalger, a former member of the county retirement board, said he questions the ethics of cases where pensioners go from one government job to another, collecting both their new salary and disability benefits.

“In my opinion--and I’m speaking as a taxpayer and not a former board member--we shouldn’t have double dippers,” he said. “If you’ve got a disability retirement and you go on to another job, then I think there should be something kept back.”

Under state law, how long an individual has been employed with the county is not a factor in calculating job-related disability benefits.

Nancy Rickman had worked as a data entry operator in the county assessor’s office seven months when she injured her lower back as she reached to answer her telephone on her desk, records show.

In 1993, Rickman, then 55, retired with a disability pension of approximately $9,000 annually, records also show. Rickman could not be reached for comment.

“Length of service has nothing to do with disability retirement,” Perris said. “If you were injured your first day on the job, that’s all it takes.”

Investigating Applicants

Applying for disability retirement is not always a sure thing. In fact, Ventura County officials said filing an application can be an extremely difficult and trying process. And not all applications are approved.

Some cases are successfully challenged by the county, such as one involving Sheriff’s Deputy Denise Enfinger.

In August 1993, according to workers’ compensation records, Enfinger was chasing a suspect when she reached behind her back with her left arm for a can of pepper spray and felt a “severe burning and popping feeling” in the center of her chest.

Although she was able to make the arrest, Enfinger’s chest pain continued and left her unable to work, records show.

Enfinger complained that she could not raise her arms above her head, bend, squat or kneel without feeling pain. Her condition was apparently so serious, she was unable to continue in a temporary light-duty position at the East County Sheriff’s Station after only two days, records show.

Troubled by conflicting medical reports, however, the county’s Risk Management office hired a private investigator and watched Enfinger for a year.

During this time, according to records in the case, she was videotaped performing a number of tasks, including driving, bending, kneeling and “lifting objects such as a 40-pound child without any signs of incapacity or handicap.”

“Based on two hours of videotape and observations of the applicant, it is this hearing officer’s opinion that the applicant’s complaints of severe incapacitating pain are not credible,” Hearing Officer Susan R. Wasserman, herself confined to a wheelchair, concluded in her ruling.

“She remains very capable of doing all the activities of daily living,” Wasserman said. “She is therefore not disabled within the meaning of the law.”

Subsequently, Enfinger’s disability application was denied.

Sheriff’s officials declined to say whether Enfinger, who could not be reached for comment, has returned to work, only that “she is a full-salaried employee.”

Chief Deputy Rodriguez said there are four sheriff’s employees who have been denied service-connected disability retirement who have not returned to work and are still on the payroll. He would not disclose their names.

Rodriguez said the main reason the employees have not returned to work is that they are all in some form of rehabilitation for their injuries.

He did not elaborate.

Meanwhile, there is no sign that the number of disability claims by public safety members is waning. There are currently nine pending applications.

In nearly all of the cases, the disability claims involve orthopedic injuries suffered on the job.

Perris, of the county’s retirement system, said there is little county officials can do to discourage disability applications or to limit the amount of pensions awarded until state law is changed.

“Our hands are tied,” Perris said.

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Ventura County Retirees

The percentage of Ventura County retirees who receive disability benefits has historically been among the highest in the state. More than half of the $9.5 million the county spends annually on disability benefits goes to 226 public safety members out on job-related injuries. The following is a breakdown of the total number of county retirees versus those workers who are receiving disability retirement benefits.

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Total Total monthly Classification retirees payment General members 2,246 $2,088,836 Safety members 498 $1,150,575 Total 2,744 $3,239,411

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Breakdown for General Members*

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Total Retirement Number monthly type of retirees payment Service 1,670 $1,798,601 Non-service disability 150 $119,103 Service connected disability 153 $171,132 Total 1,973 $2,088,836 Retired Safety Members* Service 236 $649,624 Non-service disability 20 $16,928 Service connected disability 242 $484,023 Total 498 $1,150,575

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* A total of 1,809 general service members and all 498 retired safety members are entitled to an annual cost-of-living increase of up to 3%.

Source: Ventura County Retirement System