DELGADILLO SEEKS ANTI-FRAUD FUNDS.Byline: Mariel Garza Staff Writer Los Angeles City Attorney The Los Angeles City Attorney is an elected official whose job is to prosecute all of the misdemeanor criminal offenses within the city of Los Angeles, California, United States. Rocky Delgadillo Rockard John "Rocky" Delgadillo (born July 15 1960) is the current City Attorney of Los Angeles, California. Career
James Kenneth "Jim" Hahn (born July 3, 1950) is an American politician from the Democratic Party. He was the Deputy City Attorney (1975-1979), City Controller (1981-1985), City Attorney (1985-2001) and Mayor of Los Angeles, California has nixed funding for a new team dedicated to rooting out workers' compensation workers' compensation, payment by employers for some part of the cost of injuries, or in some cases of occupational diseases, received by employees in the course of their work. fraud because of the city's budget crisis. But the team could save the city millions of dollars, and Delgadillo is appealing to the City Council to come up with the extra money. Workers' compensation costs are ``out of control,'' Delgadillo said. ``We are hemorrhaging dollars, and we need to at least apply a tourniquet tourniquet (t  r`nĭkĕt, –kā, tûr`–), compression device used to cut off the flow of blood to a part of the body, most often an arm or leg. .'' Delgadillo said he asked Hahn for $450,000 more in the 2003-04 budget, which was released last week, to pay for one new attorney and three investigators and buy surveillance equipment to crack down on felony felony (fĕl`ənē), any grave crime, in contrast to a misdemeanor, that is so declared in statute or was so considered in common law. abuse in workers' comp claims, which are expected to top $142 million in the fiscal year beginning in July. Currently, there's only one investigator. The Mayor's Office disputes Delgadillo's version, saying they were never presented with a request to fund an anti-fraud unit, just one to fund three more attorney positions for the larger Workers' Compensation Division, which handles processing claims. ``We share the concern over worker comp costs,'' said Deputy Mayor Matt Middlebrook. However, he said Hahn was reluctant to fund any more jobs in a division that already had a number of unfilled but budgeted positions, particularly in such a tight economy. In addition, the City Attorney's Office has transferred claims work to the Personnel Department, resulting in the work being handled by an outside firm for a cost of about $1 million, Middlebrook said. Workers' compensation costs have been steadily growing in recent years, from about $80 million in 2000 to an estimated $130 million this year, mostly due to increases in medical care costs. Delgadillo expects that as much as 30 percent of city employees' claims are fraudulent, and prosecuting some would be a deterrent for other employees. The city should take other steps as well, according to according to prep. 1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians. 2. In keeping with: according to instructions. 3. the head of one of the largest city employee unions. ``We're all for cracking down on fraud,'' said Julie Butcher, general manager of the Service Employees International Union, Local 347, which represents city employees. ``That's a wonderful thing. But it is sadly nowhere near enough.'' |
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