Posted on 12/31/2004 10:37:22 AM PST by NormsRevenge
Another of the California Highway Patrol's top administrators claims to have been injured at headquarters in Sacramento shortly before he headed out the door for retirement.
Gary Townsend, one of the top three assistants of former Commissioner D.O. "Spike" Helmick, said in a workers' compensation claim that he injured his left foot and ankle as he was moving items out of his office Sept. 30.
That was two weeks after the arrival of Helmick's successor, Mike Brown, who was replacing Townsend and other top administrators with his own assistants.
Townsend said he put in his paperwork for retirement even before Brown was appointed. If he had stayed, he would have returned to his previous lower-ranking civil service position as a deputy chief in charge of information management.
Unlike 70 percent of his CHP colleagues, Townsend did not seek a medical pension to shield half of his retirement income from taxes.
But he did file four workers' compensation cases - including one for the moving mishap.
Contacted at his home, Townsend said that he wanted to make sure his future medical expenses would be covered by workers' compensation.
"That's the only purpose to filing a claim," he said.
The Bee reported in September on a phenomenon known within the CHP as "Chief's Disease," in which high-ranking officers make injury claims near retirement, paving the way for workers' compensation settlements and medical pensions.
(Excerpt) Read more at sacbee.com ...
yup, CA? What do you expect.
haha......yup....you can't just use the word California for every punchline......it get's old....I hate the politics here or at least in SF, and LA but if we are so screwed how in the world do we have the 7th largest economy in the world......dumb luck???????...have a great New Year's.
Thanks. I'm getting sick of it too.
It ain't really work so it ain't really money.
That was interesting because his family owned a nut farm and those weeks he missed every year (for over 14 years) happened to coincide with their harvesting season or whatever they call it.
Since we self-insure WRT workers comp, we have investigators check out things like that. Sure enough, hes out working on the nut farm during the time he cant work due to an aggravated injury and is receiving payment from us.
Guess what? Its perfectly legitimate. His doctor claims that his injury is severe enough that he cant do his job here, but isnt so severe that he cant help out there. End of story. He goes on comp and gets paid, you just grin and bear it and wait until he ultimately retires or does something dumb like steal something so you can fire him.
Now, I can assure you that I know of NO other state that allows shenanigans like that. You may find it hard to believe, but yes, California is THE most f-ed up state when it comes to things like that. Others may have problems too, but CA takes first place.
Other states like WA and OR have done quite a few things to weed out the false (IMO) stress claims and such and enacted different reforms over the last decade or so, but CA has not. Not in any meaningful way.
I think under those circumstances I'd make him come in and put him in a bare office, telling him to sit there for 8 hours. No work required, just stare at the walls. He'd either "recover" or quit pretty quickly I bet.
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