Firefighters and police officers are brotherhoods that intersect when the public calls, and recently, when there’s a call for change in the law regarding partial-disability benefits.
"I see zero drawbacks with this law [House Bill 5188]," Cpt. Steve McCormick of the Huntington Fire Department said. House Bill 5188 received unanimous support during this year’s regular session. After passing the full Legislature, it was signed by Gov. Jim Justice, going into effect June 6.
McCormick is also president of the International Association of Fire Fighters Local 289 — which represents the HFD firefighters — and sits on the advisory board of the Professional Fire Fighters of West Virginia (PFFWV).
Beyond the theoretical language of the new law are walking, talking reasons for it, many wearing uniforms who are sworn to protect the public but up until recently, had limited protections.
"We had a 30-year-old man that had put in five or six years of service here, raising a family and he just gets basically forced out of the profession he wanted to be in ... because he had an injury doing the job. It just makes sense that we should take care of him... he has another job now," McCormick said, about the need for those partial-disability benefits extended to firefighters and municipal police officers.
How the bill came to pass
“We’re one of those occupations that unfortunately people sometimes forget about, until they need us. Every year we have to go down there [to the state Capitol, during the legislative session] and remind [legislators] that we’re still here, and still trying to get some benefits and compensation,” Jayson Nicewarner, secretary/treasurer of the PFFWV, said.
Nicewarner — who has worked for fire departments in Bridgeport, Clarksburg, and for the last 22 years, Morgantown — was part of a team effort of firefighters and representatives of municipal police officers who worked with legislators to pass a bill to extend partial-disability benefits to members of the West Virginia Municipal Police Officers and Firefighters Retirement System. Previously, the retirement system had only provided disability benefits if a member was totally disabled. The partial-disability benefit contributes 45% of the member’s average full monthly compensation for the 12-month period the member contributed to the plan prior to the disability.
Nicewarner said he, along with PFFWV’s Past President Myron Boggess, now retired from the Charleston Fire Department, initially “laid a little bit of groundwork on it” regarding the need for new legislation during the 2023 regular session.
"This session, we started right away,” Nicewarner said.
"No one’s going to want to go be a firefighter, or police officer, and maybe fall through the roof of a building, or get shot, and know that there’s nothing to take care of their family, so that was one of our big pushes for [HB 5188]."
Delegate Geno Chiarelli, R- Monongalia, was the lead sponsor of the bill.
"These men and women put their lives on the line every day for us,” Chiarelli said. “The least we can do is help support them and their families should something happen to them in the line of duty.”
'Penalized for ... doing my job'
There are reasons and real-world examples of where proponents of HB 5188 felt the existing law fell short.
"Some examples we would give [talking to legislators], were just the simple fact we didn’t think it was fair,” Nicewarner said. “If I’m out on a structure fire and I’m up on a roof ... and unfortunately I fall through the roof and break my back and I’m stuck in a wheelchair. But I can go to Walmart and be a door greeter and make that minimum amount social security allows. [But] then I’m getting penalized for being out doing my job and sacrificing my time, my body, everything else and not getting anything for it.”
In addition to extending partial-disability benefits, HB 5188 states if a person cannot “adequately” perform their current job, and if deemed partially disabled, then they will receive 45% of their prior 12-months of total compensation.
"As we know, a lot of our first responders, they are working overtime because that’s the need we have. So it’s not just going to go on your base it’s going to go on your prior 12 months total compensation and being able to receive 45% of that,” Minority Leader Sean Hornbuckle said.
Delegate Margitta Mazzocchi, R- Logan, at left, speaks with Ryan Marks, at right, vice president of Fraternal Order of Police Capital City Lodge #74 of Charleston, on Feb. 6, 2024 during this year's regular legislative session.
Marks is vice president of Fraternal Order of Police Capital City Lodge #74 of Charleston.
Marks said the way previously-existing state code related to disability benefits was written, "it was almost impossible for somebody to get an on-duty disability benefit.”
Marks gave a hypothetical example of a law enforcement officer making $55,000 a year. If that officer is injured while on duty and can still do a job that would generate “substantial gainful employment” as previously referenced in the law, an amount set by the Social Security Administration, “you’re not going to get a nickel of disability,” Marks said.
According to Marks, earning $1,550 a month met that threshold, which can also be found on the Social Security website related to substantial gainful activity (SGA). To be eligible for disability benefits, a person must be unable to engage in SGA.
"The job just has to be in the state — there’s no relevance to whether or not it’s in the immediate vicinity that you work in or live in,” Marks said. “Let’s say I lived in Huntington and there was a job available that I could work in Martinsburg that was available, I wouldn’t get a benefit.”
Marks said this prompted him to go to the Lodge’s FOP President Steve Meadows and then the State FOP Lodge to begin filling the cracks in the Code. This journey eventually led to the legislature during the 2024 regular session with both officers and firefighters paying into the same retirement system, teaming up to initiate a change.
"Every agency across the United States, and especially here in West Virginia as well, we are hurting with our staffing,” Chief Shawn Schwertfeger of the Wheeling Police Department said. "That’s a huge reason that the Chief’s Association got behind the legislation — again, to do the right things but certainly it has impacts elsewhere. [For an example:] recruitment and retention.”
Schwertfeger, a native of Marshall County who returned home after retiring as a deputy chief with the sheriff’s department of Albemarle County, Virginia, is also president of the West Virginia Chiefs of Police Assocation. He traveled to the state Capitol during this year’s regular legislative session to advocate for HB 5188.
This new law extends benefits like the partial-disability benefit in the West Virginia Deputy Sheriff Retirement Plan, making it a competitive employment tool at a time when municipal police departments are struggling.
Delegate Chiarelli said when discussions on the legislation began, that was part of the dialogue.
"I think there is that additional layer of security that these firefighters and police officers can offer in a way to attract new people into their ranks,” Chiarelli said.
Hornbuckle echoed a similar sentiment, saying, “Being able to go out in public and say ‘Hey, we understand the amount of responsibility, the sacrifice that you’re making with this type of employment but understand if you were to get hurt, we’re still going to be able to take care of you."
"In order to recruit quality candidates to a position, you’ve got to have some type of protections there, to make them feel like if they do the job, and they get injured while doing the job, that their family is going to be taken care of,” Marks said. “Because I can tell you, every person that I’ve ever spoken to about this, isn’t worried about them, they’re worried about their family.”
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