http://www.stamfordadvocate.com/news/local/scn-sa-nor.fire.illness2jan31,0,1674396.story?coll=stam-news-local-headlines
By Brian Lockhart
Staff Writer
January 31, 2007
HARTFORD - The widow of a Stamford firefighter and more than two dozen city firefighters urged state legislators yesterday to pass a bill making it easier for emergency personnel to receive workers' compensation.
The legislation pending before the joint Committee on Labor and Public Employees would force municipalities to presume a firefighter or police officer diagnosed with hepatitis, meningitis, tuberculosis or certain forms of cancer became infected while helping accident victims, combating a blaze or performing other duties.
"Right now . . . I have to prove I got it on the job," said James Kelley, legislative representative for the Stamford Professional Fire Fighters Association. "We're looking to change that so the municipality has to prove I didn't."
The bill, opposed by the Connecticut Conference of Municipalities, also would also revive a law abolished several years ago that provided compensation to emergency personnel suffering from hypertension and heart disease.
The legislation would make it harder for cities and towns to disprove a workers' compensation claim, said Steve Werbner, who represented CCM at yesterday's hearing.
"This would impose a new, costly and unfunded state mandate," said Werbner. "Just one case (of tuberculosis) would cost between $750,000 and $2.5 million."
He said the legislature should either be prepared to compensate municipalities or let the bill die.
Stamford fire union President Brendan Keatley said after years of failure, he is optimistic legislation will be passed this session.
"Politically, we've become a lot more astute," Keatley said in an interview.
That was apparent yesterday when the union introduced Mary Miller to the committee, putting a face and name on the issue.
Miller's late husband, Stamford firefighter William Miller Jr., was a 24-year veteran. She said her husband had cancer of the liver after contracting hepatitis C on the job.
He died in September 2001, and she has spent the past five years fighting the city for compensation.
Miller yesterday said Stamford's attorneys have said her husband contracted hepatitis C while off-duty. She did not tell the committee how he contracted the disease, but said the city's claims have tarnished his memory.
"Every time I have to go to a compensation hearing and listen to the negative reports by the city, I'm angry, disgusted, hurt (and) my husband is not here to defend himself," she said.
Keatley said after the hearing: "Basically, they attack his lifestyle."
Thomas Cassone, head of Stamford's Law Department, was not at the hearing. In a phone interview, he said the case is being handled by an outside firm and declined to comment on any details.
"No one at all should have to go through this type of ordeal, this additional mental anguish and pain," Miller told legislators. "(Firefighters) put their lives on the line for all of us. Is this how the city says thank you?"
Her tearful testimony moved state Sen. Edith Prague, D-Columbia, the committee's co-chairwoman. Prague followed Miller outside the hearing room to thank her for attended.
The legislation must be enacted, Prague said after the hearing.
"It's got to happen. . . . It's a matter of fairness," Prague said. "For the municipalities to want to deny them compensation for injuries they sustain as firefighters is unconscionable."
But Cassone yesterday said if the bill passed, he did not believe it would make it any easier for people like Mary Miller to collect benefits or avoid lawyers probing into loved one's personal lives.
"It puts the city in the situation where they have to disprove all these other ways to contract (the illness), which probably lends itself to just what Mrs. Miller fears," Cassone said.
Norwalk Personnel Director James Haselkamp yesterday said in an interview the bill's language makes it "almost impossible" for a municipality to prevail once a workers' compensation claim is filed.
"Just the fact they are human, they have a substantial likelihood of getting some of the diseases listed," he said. "I'm sure there are studies that show maybe firefighters have more cases of cancer, but if you look at the statistics of the population at large, (it's) prevalent."
Haselkamp, former human resources director for Stamford and Waterbury, recalled when the legislation awarding workers' compensation for hypertension and heart disease was in place.
"It cost cities and towns millions of dollars in claims where the person would have suffered the disease irrespective of employment," he said.
Testifying on behalf of Miller and Stamford's firefighters yesterday was state Rep. Jim Shapiro, D-Stamford. He believes there is room for compromise.
"It's important that we get some bill out there that holds up the government's end of the bargain - to care for these guys when they're sick after the dangerous jobs they've done," Shapiro said. "Yes, it's expensive to fund this, but it will be more costly if we don't. . . . We lose these valuable services, and people lose faith in government. I don't think you can put a price on that."
Copyright © 2007, Southern Connecticut Newspapers, Inc.