The Montgomery County Council passed legislation Tuesday that would allow disabled police officers hurt in the line of duty to continue to draw a full disability pension regardless of the severity of their injury.
The full council agreed to procedural changes to the county’s disability pension system that were previously agreed upon by County Executive Ike Leggett and the Fraternal Order of Police union, but was split over whether to require the county and the unions to agree to a two-tier disability system that would likely pay less money to partially disabled officers and more to fully disabled officers.
Currently, disabled officers receive two-thirds of their salaries in a tax-free pension.
The final version of the legislation, which has been debated for months, included changes to the makeup of the medical review panel that determines a police officer’s eligibility to include doctors who specialize in occupational medicine. The bill also adds a deadline for when new injuries have to be reported, but it did not create a two-tier system.
“The council could have taken two steps forward today,” said Council President Phil Andrews, D-Gaithersburg/Rockville. “This first step is very important.”
A two-tier system was a key recommendation of a consultant who studied the county’s disability system, as well as the county’s inspector general, who documented the trends in the disability system that he said a “prudent person would consider abusive.”
From 1985 to 2008, 274 out of 686 retiring officers, or 40 percent, have retired with disability pay, according to the police union. Surrounding counties have seen much lower rates.
The majority of the county’s disabled officers suffer from orthopedic injuries that would be considered partial disabilities, according to County Council staff.
Supporters of a two-tier system said it made “intuitive sense” to pay more money to incapacitated officers who can’t find work elsewhere and less money to partially disabled police officers who are able to find similar work, as some disabled Montgomery County officers have done.
But the county’s unions and some council members have opposed efforts to impose a two-tier system through legislation, saying the council was trying to force changes that should occur through the collective bargaining process.
“I have to be honest, this is not the greatest catastrophe since Pearl Harbor,” said Councilman George Leventhal, D-at large.
