Last week, a report released by Montgomery County Executive Ike Leggett said nearly 40 percent of the county’s public safety retirees earn extra money for work-related disabilities.
Leggett’s spokesman Patrick Lacefield did not respond to questions from the Examiner about whether officials believe police skipping medical exams could be linked to the high number of disability payments in that department.
But in Fairfax County, where more than 75 percent of the police force takes part in a voluntary wellness program that requires annual medical exams and officials said all officers comply with their semi-annual physicals, only 3 percent of similar retirees receive disability payments.
Leggett has called for an overhaul in how the county administers payments for retirees with work-related disabilities; Montgomery Inspector General Tom Dagley is expected to release an audit in September that will discuss potential waste, fraud and abuse in the disability retirement program.
Last fall, Leggett asked representatives of Montgomery’s police, fire and rescue, and human resources departments plus the county attorney to examine the system. After nine months, they recommended seven changes including allowing a denial of benefits if an employee is terminated for wrongdoing.
Lacefield said multiple police officers who were busted for working private security jobs while on the county’s clock last year are receiving disability payments.
Montgomery County Council Vice President Phil Andrews, who saw preliminary results of the audit, said that more than half of police officers who retired in recent years receive disability payments.
Examiner staff writer Freeman Klopott contributed to this report.
