EDITORIAL PENSION PLUNDER `CHIEF'S DISEASE' IS A PLAGUE UPON TAXPAYERS.

A firefighter faces great danger and earns the community's respect and admiration by putting his or her life and limb at risk to protect the lives and property of others.

That said, it's outrageous that many retiring Los Angeles County firefighters could have gotten away with exploiting the goodwill of the public by scamming the pension and workers' compensation systems - and how the abuses could have been ignored by county officials and the Board of Supervisors for so long.

Called ``chief's disease'' for the prevalence of this scam in the upper echelons of public safety agencies, the pension-spiking scam has siphoned off millions of taxpayer funds, just to make a healthy retirement package for county firefighters that much more lucrative. The cost to Los Angeles County taxpayers has doubled in the past six years to about $50 million this year.

The reason this affects the public treasury is because if a firefighter goes out on disability in his or her final year, the salary is tax-free. This creates an artificial boost in take-home pay, which is how the final pensions are tabulated.

The injury also paves the way for a disability retirement with half the income being tax free. The bottom line is more money for firefighters during their lifetime pension at the expense of a public that will be lucky to retire on a paltry social security check.

And it's not just a few firefighters taking advantage of this. County records show that most retiring firefighters, an average of 63 percent, between 2001 and 2003 claimed a disabling injury during their final year of service.

The real outrage is that this abuse has been going on for years. Where has county Fire Chief P. Michael Freeman or Chief Administrative Officer David Janssen been during this time? Isn't it their responsibility, if not the Board of Supervisors', to notice this type of abuse?

The generous pensions negotiated when the California economy was booming are already an enormous burden on government services. That people pledged to protect the public would also scam them is indefensible.

County supervisors have called for an investigation of the practice. But that's not enough. They should put an end to it immediately - and push for a change of the laws to ensure this type of abuse never happens again.