The number of Montgomery County police officers who started receiving taxpayer-funded disability payments nearly doubled last fiscal year, according to a new report. The study released by Montgomery CountyStat, the jurisdiction’s data-driven oversight agency, shows that 18 police officers received new disability pay, up from 10 the year before. And 20 percent more employees overall were awarded disability.
For years, county officials have complained the system shells out millions of dollars to able-bodied employees — they recently passed legislation altering the medical panel that reviews the cases — and say lack of oversight casts a shadow over legitimate claims.
“The system doesn’t have the confidence of the public,” said Councilman Phil Andrews, D-Gaithersburg/Rockville. “It doesn’t pass muster. At best, it’s a work in progress.”
Andrews has introduced a bill that would develop a two-tiered system — in which disability payments would be determined by injury severity — for all police and general government employees. Currently, an officer who breaks a finger is eligible for the same amount of money as a colleague paralyzed while on duty.
Andrews said County Executive Ike Leggett’s administration should push a two-tiered setup in ongoing negotiations with public employee unions. If not, Andrews said the council likely would pursue the change, as they have targeted benefits and compensation for potential long-term savings.
As The Washington Examiner first reported, more than three times as many county firefighters applied for disability payments in recent months than were awarded the financial perk all of last year. The outcomes of those cases have not been released.
Between March and June, according to personnel documents, 25 Fire and Rescue Service employees applied for disability pay. In comparison, seven firefighters were given the benefit for the first time all of last year.
Under the current system, police officers and municipal employees are given two-thirds of their annual salary in a tax-free pension.
The timing of disability claims also has troubled many county officials, including Leggett.
Nearly one-third of Montgomery County employees awarded disability since 2005 — and almost half of such firefighters — began banking the taxpayer-funded payments at the time they qualified for normal retirement.
Inspector General Thomas Dagley in a 2008 report concluded that “a prudent person would consider [the disability claims] abusive.” He found more than 60 percent of officers retired with a disability pension in a recent three-year period.
