Free Republic

A California Highway Patrol chief tapped to lead a new workers' compensation fraud unit filed his own contested injury claim before getting the job, a potential conflict that the appointing commissioner said he didn't know about at the time. Chief Brian Kilmer made another injury claim after he took over the fraud unit last fall and after he became the subject of a CHP internal investigation. Kilmer, 44, who returned to work part time this week, has been reassigned to a job reviewing CHP recruitment pending the resolution of his workers' comp cases, CHP Commissioner Mike Brown said Thursday. "You...

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...

Lying to get a state medical pension would become a crime, and even past retirement age, disabled workers could be forced to undergo follow-up medical exams under legislation endorsed Tuesday by a committee of the California Public Employees' Retirement System. If the full 13-member CalPERS board approves the proposal today, as expected, the retirement system would sponsor a bill to revise the disability pension law for state workers and employees of local governments who are part of the system. The proposal comes in response to stories in The Bee raising questions about the use of medical pensions, especially among the...