Columbus, Ohio Seeks Revision to Costly 'Light Duty'

Feb. 03--Some Columbus firefighters have been allowed to take advantage of a policy loophole that allows them to sit behind a desk for years while recovering from an injury and still earn their full pay.

Fire administration and union heads have pleaded with the Department of Public Safety to amend the policy, arguing that the current system leaves the Division of Fire short-handed, lowers morale and violates a promise to serve the public.

Just one case has cost taxpayers more than $1 million.

The practice is called "light duty," and it permits injured firefighters to work behind a desk or greet visitors at headquarters while other firefighters are paid additional money to work at a higher rank or on overtime to cover their regular shifts.

The policy limits light duty to 90 days, except for rare occasions.

As of December, 25 firefighters were on light duty, and more than half of them had been there a year or more, according to Fire Division records. The Safety Department later amended that list to 19 firefighters, saying some might have returned to full duty or were no longer on light duty for undisclosed reasons. Eleven of those 19 have been on light duty for more than year.

The Dispatch is reporting both lists because it is unclear which one is more accurate.

The injuries range from anxiety, heart and weight issues to chronic knee, back and shoulder injuries. Fire administrators are obligated to create a temporary position for a firefighter if the firefighter's doctor says he or she can perform some tasks.

Fire Chief Gregory A. Paxton and fire union President Jack Reall say the policy's major flaw is that there is no mechanism to wean firefighters off light duty and back to regular duty or into a disability retirement.

Emails obtained through records requests show that, since at least 2006, one fire chief or assistant chief after the next has asked the Public Safety Department for a better policy.

Reall said he also has pleaded for change for several years.

"All firefighters we have are valuable to our operation, and we get injured and we need this system in place to rehab them and get them back into regular duty," Paxton said. "If they are no longer able to work, we need to have a mechanism in place that points them toward a disability retirement."

Brooke Carnevale, Public Safety's human-resources director, said the fire administration and the union have a negative view of light duty and don't recognize its merits.

"Light duty is not a bad thing, and getting people back into the workplace and back on regular duty is what we are trying to do here," she said.

Battalion Chief Yolanda Arnold, 57, has been on light duty for six years. She initially was placed on light duty for anxiety in 2006, months after she was the subject of an internal investigation related to fire inspectors under her command claiming more overtime than hours worked.

She later sued the city, claiming harassment and discrimination, but the lawsuit was dismissed by a federal judge.

While on light duty Arnold also was injured in a vehicle accident.

Six years of her annual salary -- now at $109,000 -- and the additional overtime and pay to have other supervisors cover her regular position add up to at least $1 million, several fire administrators estimated.

Firefighter John McFadden, 59, has been on light duty for three years for a back injury. He collects a $66,000 annual salary while greeting visitors at headquarters.

Capt. David Arruda, 53, has been on light duty five times within the past 10 years for chronic injuries. He collects a $92,400 annual salary doing data entry and other tasks as they come up.

Battalion Chief Patrick Ferguson, the division's spokesman, refused to make any of the firefighters on the light-duty list available for interviews.

Arnold, McFadden and Arruda could be hanging on because they are likely enrolled in the Ohio Police and Fire Pension Fund's Deferred Retirement Option Plan. They meet the age and years-of-service requirements, but the pension board will not disclose employees enrolled in DROP.

The program lets police officers and firefighters defer retirement up to eight years while their pension payments accrue interest. When they retire, they are paid the interest and deferred years of retirement income in a lump sum in addition to drawing their pensions. The system was meant to keep qualified personnel around longer to better serve the public.

Carnevale said she suspects there is some abuse of the light-duty policy, but it's unfair to single out anyone because neither the public nor the fire administration fully knows someone's medical problems.

She gave two reasons for not amending the policy after years of requests from fire administrators:

--A moratorium on new leave policies by the city attorney's office.

--The union's "reluctance to have a process that doesn't end in arbitration."

The moratorium was lifted around 2009. And Reall rebutted Carnevale's statement that the union is an obstacle.

"I can tell you that I have gone to (Carnevale) for at least six months straight asking, 'Where is the light-duty policy?"" he said. "Every single time, I am told that it is not a priority or the city attorney is still reviewing it."

During an email exchange with Reall in December 2011, a frustrated Carnevale responded to Reall's request to review an amendment to the light-duty policy that Paxton had said would be effective in January 2012.

"Paxton needs to worry about other problems," Carnevale wrote. "I have not had time to make corrections to the documents."

Carnevale said she is frustrated with Paxton and other fire officials "because they think a new policy will be some kind of magic wand."

She said the city, to avoid lawsuits, has to adhere to numerous state and federal guidelines for injured employees.

Unlike the Fire Division, the city's Division of Police doesn't have a light-duty problem.

There are 30 officers on what the Police Division calls restricted duty, only one of them for more than a year.

Chief Kimberley Jacobs said she is not aware of the issues in the Fire Division but said her staff keeps close tabs on officers on restricted duty.

"It's a nonissue for us because of that," she said.

The police policy also states that an officer could forfeit his or her gun and badge while on restricted duty.

Fire chiefs from other cities were stunned to hear that Columbus firefighters were on light duty for a year or more.

"More than a year? Wouldn't happen here," Dayton Fire Chief Herbert C. Redden II said.

The Cincinnati Fire Department has its physician determine when a firefighter is capable of returning to regular duty. The firefighter can submit medical records from a personal doctor that the department's physician can consider.

In Columbus, the firefighter's doctor determines when he or she can return to regular duty. The doctor's paperwork is then reviewed by CareWorks, the city's medical- and workers' compensation administrator. Carnevale said CareWorks' review is "a paper review."

The Dayton Fire Department's light-duty policy is similar to Cincinnati's but allows the firefighter's doctor and the department's doctor to make a determination. If the doctors disagree, then management and the union mutually agree on an independent physician to make the final determination.

The costs for that third-party determination are paid by the party contesting the initial ruling.

The Washington, D.C., Fire Department allows firefighters to remain on light duty for 90 days. After that, the firefighter must use sick leave; and when that is exhausted, go on unpaid leave.

Reall said he thought Carnevale and city attorneys would support a policy that allows the union to intervene after a firefighter has been on light duty for a year. The firefighter then would have 30 days to come up with a plan to return to regular duty or seek a disability retirement or face termination.

"We recognize that the current system is not beneficial to the division or our members, and all we want to do is make sure we were involved enough," he said. "We could see if maybe they weren't going to the right doctor or they weren't realizing the severity of their injuries."

Carnevale said she agrees policy changes are needed but thinks termination is a drastic step.

"I will tell you it is a very difficult and emotional thing to look a firefighter or police officer in the eye and tell them they can't do the job anymore," Carnevale said. "It is a huge blow to their ego, and the big tears come."

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