ABUSE REFORMS COULD SAVE ON PENSIONS.

Byline: Troy Anderson Staff Writer

Los Angeles County could save up to $12.5 million a year in pension payments if the Board of Supervisors and others adopt state legislation to tackle abuse, a report released Monday says.

Risk Manager Rocky Armfield urged supervisors to sponsor new legislation, which he said should include a requirement that partially disabled workers be assigned to light-duty tasks rather than just receive compensation.

The proposed reforms come on the heels of Daily News reports that an average of 79 percent of firefighters and 56 percent of sheriff's deputies received service-connected disability retirements in the past decade, a rate among the highest in the state.

Last fiscal year, disability pension payments for Los Angeles County employees hit $380 million.

``Clearly, something has to be done,'' Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky said Monday. ``This board has been very focused on the whole workers' compensation issue and the pensionability issues associated with it. My bet is the board will take action to support these changes.''

In January, Armfield released a report noting that the county's injured- worker policy encourages employees to file workers' compensation claims and boost their retirement packages with hefty disability pensions.

The system invites abuse because it allows county employees to tack on workers' compensation benefits to their overall retirement packages. Many other jurisdictions, such as the city of Los Angeles, deduct such benefits from pensions.

Armfield's proposed reforms include:

--Require a disability pension to be based on ``clear and convincing'' evidence that the job is the cause of the disability. The current standard says the job must contribute ``substantially'' to the injury, which the courts have interpreted as a ``small or very minor degree'' of disability.

--Coordinate disability retirement payments with workers' compensation payments to eliminate duplicate tax-free payments for the same injury or illness.

--Limit eligibility for workers' compensation benefits to only those instances where the injury was severe or the result of external violence or physical force in the line of duty.

--Reduce 100 percent, tax-free workers' compensation benefits to 75 percent; reduce disability pension survivor benefits from 100 percent to the standard 65 percent tax-free, unless the employee is killed in the line of duty.

``The tax-free benefit actually increases an injured worker's take-home pay and creates a financial disincentive to return to work,'' Armfield wrote.

Troy Anderson, [phone]

troy.anderson(at)dailynews.com