2012-2013 Santa Clara County Civil Grand Jury Report the State of Public Safety Disability Retirement Rates in the

Conclusions 24

• CL1 Page 15
  Averaged over the past five years, the City of Gilroy has the second highest IDR rate in the county at 43%.
• CL2 Page 15
  The City of Morgan Hill did not provide the Grand Jury the number of police department service and disability retirements for the past 5 years.
• CL3 Page 15
  Averaged over the past five years, the City of Palo Alto has the highest IDR rate in the county at 51%. 15
• CL4 Page 12
  The type, age, maintenance history, and availability of equipment and tools
• CL5 Page 12
  The minimum job requirements may be defined more rigorously for some entities than for others
• CL6 Page 12
  The quality of the wellness, safety, and injury prevention programs
• CL7 Page 12
  The availability of fitness programs tailored to firefighters and law enforcement personnel, with annual required assessments
• CL8 Page 12
  Adaptations to working conditions unique to a specific entity
• CL9 Page 12
  The willingness or ability of an entity to reassign employees to alternate job assignments within the department to accommodate injury-based job restrictions, thereby extending their years of service or eliminate an IDR
• CL10 Page 12
  The Local Governing Body’s aggressiveness and/or savvy about the employer’s options in deciding whether or not to grant an IDR
• CL11 Page 12
  Morale 26 http://www.calpers.ca.gov/eip-docs/employer/retiree-ben-trust/experience-study.pdf page 18 27 POFF refers to State-level Police Officers and FireFighters 12 The cities of Palo Alto and Gilroy have the highest IDR rates in the county for their composition of Public Safety. The City of Campbell has the lowest IDR rate for their composition of Public Safety. The City of Los Altos and the Town of Los Gatos have IDR rates of 19% and 17% respectively for their composition of Public Safety. The cities of Milpitas, Mountain View, San Jose, Santa Clara and Sunnyvale, and Santa Clara County all have rates between 26% and 30% for their composition of Public Safety. Nevertheless, these rates reflect that one quarter to one third of these entities’ Public Safety employees are permanently injured doing their jobs. Although the Grand Jury recognizes that no amount of mitigation measures can prevent certain IDRs, many factors within an entity’s control can impact its overall IDR rate. Entities would be well-served to scrutinize the IDR factors within their control to lower their IDR rates.
• CL12 Page 17
  Does CalPERS administer your pension funds for safety (police & fire) and non- safety employees? If not, please identify and describe how your pension plan is being administered.
• CL13 Page 17
  Does CalPERS also administer your retirement-with-disability funds? If not, please identify and describe how your retirement-with-disability plan is being administered.
• CL14 Page 17
  Does your city/county have final approval authority for retirement-with-disability status for your safety and non-safety employees?
• CL15 Page 17
  Can an employee with a non-job-related disability be approved for retirement- with-disability? If so, out of the total number of retirements, how many non-job- related retirements-with-disability were approved for the each of the past five fiscal years? a. For safety employees b. For non-safety employees
• CL16 Page 17
  Out of the total number of retirements, how many job-related retirements-with- disability were approved for each of the past five fiscal years? a. For safety employees b. For non-safety employees
• CL17 Page 17
  What are the active employee (i.e., pre-retirement) Workers Compensation disability rates (claims per 100 employees) for each of the past five fiscal years? a. For safety employees b. For non-safety employees
• CL18 Page 17
  Is there a process in place for providing modified-duty accommodations to active (i.e., pre-retirement) safety and non-safety employees who become disabled? If so, please describe that process and include the average number of such positions made available for each of the past five fiscal years.
• CL19 Page 17
  Is there a time limit for applying for disability status post-retirement? If so, what are the time limits for safety and non-safety retirees? 17 Appendix A - continued
• CL20 Page 18
  Describe in detail the retirement-with-disability application and review process for your safety and non-safety employees, highlighting any process differences between safety and non-safety employees. a. If a retirement review board or forum is part of the process, please describe its composition (i.e., membership) and the member terms. If there are separate review boards for safety and non-safety employees, please describe the composition of each. b. How many medical practitioners must approve a retirement-with-disability application? i. How are the medical practitioners chosen and, if applicable, how long is their term of service? ii. Are the medical practitioners specialists in the area of the disability that is claimed? iii. Are the medical practitioners city/county employees or private medical practitioners? c. Out of the total number of applications for retirement-with-disability reviewed by medical practitioners, how many safety and non-safety employee applications were approved by the medical practitioner for each of the past five fiscal years? d. Out of the total number of applications for retirement-with-disability reviewed by the safety employee review board, how many were approved for safety employees for each of the past five fiscal years? Please provide the same numbers for the non-safety employees. e. Is there an appeal process for those who disagree with the review board’s decision? i. If so, for each of the past five fiscal years, how many decisions were appealed and what were their outcomes?
• CL21 Page 18
  If an employee retires with a disability, is his/her gross monthly retirement income different or the same as his/her non-disability retirement income? If different, how is the difference determined?
• CL22 Page 18
  When your city/county makes changes to the retirement-with-disability process or criteria, are unions involved in negotiating and approving these changes? If so, describe the nature of that involvement.
• CL23 Page 18
  How does your retirement with disability approval criteria compare with the Workers Compensation disability criteria?
• CL24 Page 18
  Describe programs, both voluntary and mandatory, that your city/county uses to promote employee wellness and/or injury prevention for safety employees. 18 Appendix B: Referenced Documents and Websites Report Name Report Date Document Source “An Analysis of Pension and Other Post Employment June 2012 http://www.scscourt.org/court_divisions/civil/cgj/grand_jury.shtml Benefits” 2011-12 Grand Jury Bartel & Associates Actuarial Consulting http://www.bartel-associates.com/home California Labor Code Section 4850 http://codes.lp.findlaw.com/cacode/LAB/1/d4/2/2/7/s4850 California A Public Pensions Annual Report - State June 2010 http://www.californiapublicpolicycenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/CA- Controller’s Office Public-Retirement-Systems-6-30-2010-released-03-03-2012.pdf CalPERS main website http://www.calpers.ca.gov/ CalPERS Disability & Industrial Disability Retirement for a 2012 http://www.calpers.ca.gov/index.jsp?bc=/employer/program- Public Agency Employer services/retirement/dis-ind-retire/home.xml CalPERS Disability Retirement Guide 2012 https://www.calpers.ca.gov/index.jsp?bc=/about/benefits-overview/disability- industrial-disability.xml CalPERS Guide to Completing Your Disability Retirement December http://www.calpers.ca.gov/index.jsp?bc=/about/forms-pubs/mbr-pubs/calpers- Election Application 2012 member-pubs/planning-retirement.xml CalPERS Experience Study 1997-2007 2010 http://www.calpers.ca.gov/eip-docs/employer/retiree-ben-trust/experience- study.pdf CalPERS Facts at a Glance April 2013 http://www.calpers.ca.gov/index.jsp?bc=/about/facts/home.xml CalPERS Pension Primer Oct 2009 www.calpersresponds.com/downloads/Pension_Primer.pdf CalPERS Policies and Procedures for a Public Agency May 2013 www.calpers.ca.gov/index.jsp?bc=/employer/policies-procedures/home.xml Employer Pub 35 CalPERS Public Agency & Schools Reference Guide Feb 2013 http://www.calpers.ca.gov/index.jsp?bc=/about/forms-pubs/er- pubs/manuals/pas-ref-guide.xml City Auditor’s Report to the City Council of the City of San April 2011 http://www.sanjoseca.gov/index.aspx?NID=307 Jose “Disability Retirement: A Program in Need of Reform” City Auditor’s Report to the City Council of the City of San Sept 2012 http://www.sanjoseca.gov/index.aspx?NID=307 Jose “Fire Department Injuries – A More Coordinated Response and Better Follow-up Is Needed” City Auditor’s Report to the City Council of the City of San Dec 2012 http://www.sanjoseca.gov/index.aspx?nid=309 Jose “Outstanding Audit Recommendations Status” San Jose City Council Public Safety Committee Agenda Sept 2012 http://sanjoseca.gov/index.aspx?NID=425 San Jose Retirement Boards Sept 2012 http://www.sanjoseca.gov/index.aspx?nid=3432 San Jose Measure B Pension Reform Comparison to June 2012 www.ballotpedia.org Similar Reforms San Jose Pension Reform Measure B Pamphlet Text June 2012 www.sanjoseca.gov/documentcenter/view/3965 What is Workers Compensation? http://www.usworkerscomp.com/workers-compensation 19 Appendix C: Questionnaire Response Data City of Sheriff Law Los Los Mountain Palo San Campbell Gilroy Milpitas Santa Enforcement+ Sunnyvale Altos Gatos View Alto Jose Clara SCC Fire Current # of Public Safety 40 103 36 38 150 166 222 1718 286 775 195 employees (eligible for IDR) Current # of 0 40 0 0 55 72 121 642 144 225 81 Firefighters % of Public Safety employees 0% 39% 0% 0% 37% 43% 55% 37% 50% 29% 42% who are Firefighters Total Public Safety 7 14 16 6 23 22 43 503 83 176 32 retirements (over 5 yrs) Industrial disability 0 6 3 1 7 6 22 151 25 45 9 retirements (over 5 yrs) % of Industrial disability 0% 43% 19% 17% 30% 27% 51% 30% 30% 26% 28% retirements (over 5 yrs) 20 This report was PASSED and ADOPTED with a concurrence of at least 12 grand jurors on this 11th day of June, 2013. Steven P. McPherson Foreperson Lyn H. Johnson Foreperson pro tem Chester F. Hayes Foreperson pro tem Francis A. Stephens Secretary 21

No Responses Found 1

Government entities assigned to respond to this report. No response documents have been linked in our database.