For 12 years after an independent medical examiner ruled he could stop playing hurt and return to work, Hurley received a monthly disability check at the taxpayers' expense.
But even Hurley -- the latest, and laziest, in a long line of firefighters -- eventually decided the jig was up. He ignored the funds' orders to return to work, attend mandatory training or explain his absences.
He'd moved on. He was a chef, re-trained at the city's expense. When the fund finally terminated his $3,200 monthly benefit in 2007, Hurley didn't bother to appeal.
His union, however, did.
City Commissioner Randy Leonard sees considerable irony in that. While Hurley is "reviled" among Portland firefighters, Leonard says, their union is concerned that ethical members of the frat might be fired without just cause.
The city failed to define the wages, hours and working conditions of Hurley's new low-hazard job, Leonard said, and an arbitrator ruled these are basic requirements of a city contract, subject to bargaining.
Leonard and Commissioner Dan Saltzman are going to war over this.
Leonard believes the arbitrator's ruling -- which would hand Chef Hurley $103,000 in lost disability payments and restore that $3,200 monthly boondoggle -- is "final and binding. There is no appeal."
To challenge the Portland Fire Fighters Association at this point is obnoxious and short-sighted, Leonard adds, when the city is "asking them to take a pay freeze and consider a furlough. They're going to tell us to put our proposal where the sun don't shine."
by Steve Duin The Oregonian
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