City Hall: Saltzman's Defense of Police/Fire Disability Fund Reforms

Commissioner Dan Saltzman says his push [PDF] to defend the City of Portland's voter-approved reforms around disability pay for firefighters and police officers will come before City Council this week.

"We need to take a stand," Saltzman says.

That push, which calls for Portland to fight legal challenges such as those from ex-firefighter Tom Hurley, was supposed to have been debated at City Hall last Wednesday.

Instead, on advice from the city attorney's office, Saltzman says he delayed the action from last week. Today he said his proposed legal strategy wouldn't preclude the city from other attempts to block Hurley from getting future monthly benefits, as an arbitrator ruled in January.

"The fire bureau can always offer him a job that's not a return-to-work program, and that can still happen under my resolution," Saltzman says. "I will be offering an amendment to clarify that."