Assembly Thwarts Reform: Protect 'Double Dip' With Triple Stack

Assembly Thwarts Reform
Protect 'Double Dip' With Triple Stack

By GINGER ADAMS OTIS

The State Assembly's Judiciary Committee made three sudden additions to its ranks June 13 that enabled it to vote down a measure that sought to limit the ways in which public employees could file personal injury claims against municipalities.

MICHAEL A. CARDOZO: Decries panel-packing. The hasty appointment of three Democratic Assembly Members to the panel resulted in an 11-10 vote against the bill and angered the city's Law Department, which has lobbied for several years alongside many other municipalities to get the measure passed.

'Won't Even Consider It'

"I am disheartened that, as a result of this maneuver, the full Assembly will not even have the chance to consider this bill on the merits," said Corporation Counsel Michael A. Cardozo.

"Not only is it unfair to all local governments, it is also costing the taxpayers millions of dollars," he added.

Mr. Cardozo said he would lobby to bring the bill back in future sessions. He said he believed it already had enough support to pass the Republican-controlled Senate.

The city contends a loophole in state law allows public-sector employees to "double dip" by filing for accident disability pensions, paid for by the city, as well as suing for lost future wages.

SHELDON SILVER: Negotiate the change.

Want Just One Bite

Backed by Gov. George E. Pataki, Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, and a bipartisan array of state legislators, the city has been lobbying to change the law so that public-sector workers, like those in the private sector, can't file tort claims in addition to other financial settlements.

The change would save the city an estimated $11 million annually, according to the Law Department. City officials called the decision to add three Democratic members to the committee a political move, but stopped short of accusing Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver of deliberately trying to kill the bill.

The New York Times reported last week that a spokeswoman for Mr. Silver said that Assembly members are routinely asked to fill in for committee vacancies and that Mr. Silver had had "no knowledge" of how the members would vote.

Trial Lawyers' Influence

Supporters of the bill said it was scuttled after the trial lawyers' lobby rushed out a memo June 12 claiming the measure would unfairly curtail the settlement amounts that public-sector workers could win.

The New York State Trial Lawyers' Association said the memo had been circulating since the bill was first introduced several years ago.

Mr. Silver, who is a trial lawyer, has said in the past that he thinks issues related to disability pensions should be settled through collective bargaining.

"He has some concerns about the issue," spokeswoman Eileen Larrabee told the New York Times June 13. "If they want to change it, they should do it when contracts are negotiated."