Daily News: Abuse Cited in High County Pension Rates

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L.A. County Supervisor Gloria Molina plans to introduce a motion calling for a case-by-case fraud review of the pensions for county firefighters and sheriff’s officers, the Daily News reported Monday.


Twice as many county firefighters and sheriff’s employees receive disability pensions as their counterparts in the city Fire Department and Los Angeles Police Department, according to the newspaper.


“I think the public wants us to provide disability pensions for firefighters and sheriff’s deputies hurt on the job,” Molina told the Daily News. “But when people abuse the system it taints the entire process. We have to look for abuse.”


In 2003, 22 percent of statewide firefighters and law enforcement officers took disability pensions. In L.A. County, the numbers were 38 percent of county sheriff’s employees and 72 percent of county firefighters. On the city level, 20 percent of LAPD employees and 13 percent of firefighters took disability retirements.


County Chief Administrative Officer David Janssen said one of the reasons for the high percentage is that laws are geared in the employees’ favor.


State legislators have scheduled a Jan. 24 hearing on public employee pensions.

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