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Pension system slow to change
Photo -- still from surveillance video of Andrew P. Ellenberger moving a carpet.(To see QuickTime™ movie click here.)
By BRAD GOLDSTEIN
©St. Petersburg Times, published May 20, 1996
ST. PETERSBURG - In 25 years as a firefighter, Andrew P. Ellenberger injured his back half a dozen times.
He hurt it slipping on the firehouse floor. He reinjured it pulling a hose from the back of a truck. He hurt it again putting on his fire coat, among other things.
In 1992 he applied for a disability pension, submitting documents that showed he was unable to bend, stoop or climb ladders.
Trustees of the city's Firemen's Pension Fund voted unanimously in December 1992 to give Ellenberger $1,589 a month, tax-free. He also gets taxpayer-supported medical treatment for his back injuries.
Five months after Ellenberger received a pension, a city-hired private detective caught him on film lifting what appears to be a bag of fertilizer. It also showed him lugging a carpet into a St. Petersburg home and bending over repeatedly to start a power mower. (To see one of Ellenberger's disability documents and a Quicktime™ movie click here.)
A recent Times series, "To Serve and Collect," revealed that many police officers and firefighters have retired on disability pensions only to go on to such physically demanding activities as horseback riding and sailboat racing.
The series has prompted some changes, helping derail a bill that would have made public safety pensions even more lucrative. However, even some trustees say the system is still prone to abuse.
"You will never have a system that will not be abused," said Tish Elston, a trustee on the St. Petersburg Firemen's Pension Fund. "(Ellenberger's case) throws a shadow over the whole fund. If you allow one abuse, are others out there?"
None of the trustees were aware Ellenberger had been captured on film until a reporter brought it to their attention. Elston said she would ask the city attorney if it would be possible to revoke Ellenberger's disability pension.
"He certainly didn't look like he's in a lot of pain," Elston said after viewing the film. "I think we have a conscientious board. I think they would all be concerned about that video. . . . It's not right for the undeserving to take from the deserving."
The private investigator who filmed Ellenberger was hired by the city's workers' compensation department, which suspected the retired firefighter of malingering. The department intends to use the video to settle Ellenberger's workers' compensation claim.
Michael Wimmers, a St. Petersburg firefighter and pension trustee who voted for Ellenberger's disability pension, said workers' compensation generally does not share information with the pension board.
"We're only able to go by what the doctors say in their reports," Wimmers said. "I'm absolutely against these people who are abusing the system. And they're out there. . . . If there's evidence, we need to review it."
When first contacted at his second home in Sparta, N.C., Ellenberger, 53, said his back and neck pain was so severe he was forced to rest every afternoon. He also questioned whether the private detective had filmed the right person.
After the Times sent him a photo that showed him hauling a carpet into a house, Ellenberger submitted a written response to the newspaper.
"Doctors have rated my disability at 5 percent on my back and 31/2 on my neck," he wrote, adding that he was unable to climb ladders or lift or push anything heavier than 50 pounds.
He also said he was able to bend and stoop - despite having submitted a form to the pension board that claimed he was unable. "The "roll of carpet' in question was, in fact, a folded remnant less than 4 feet wide," he wrote. "My end weighed less than 25 pounds - at most. My injuries are real and permanent. I live with neck and back pain every day. My doctors have instructed me that I am unable to fight fires."
Several doctors agreed with Ellenberger, but a physician and a chiropractor suggested his weight and motivation could be contributing to his complaints.
"I feel it would be worthwhile to have him undergo a short-term course of therapy, not as much hands-on as being instructed in the exercises and toning, and it is possible he could return back to his regular activities with no restrictions," one doctor wrote.
Ellenberger's attorney told the pension board that his client wanted a disability retirement so he would not have to pay taxes. Disability pensions for police officers and firefighters are tax-free, according to the Internal Revenue Service.
A recent legislative study found Florida public safety officers had one of the best retirement systems in the country. Fire and police unions lobbied the Legislature this spring to increase their benefits and make it impossible for cities to force injured firefighters and police officers to work in other city jobs. The bill failed to make it to the Senate floor for a vote.
Mike Sittig, president of the Florida League of cities, said the Times series, lobbying by several big-city mayors and squabbling among many local fire and police unions all helped kill the bill.
David Murrell, legislative director for the Police Benevolent Association in Tallahassee, said the pension bill will be refiled next year.
"One way or another, it will happen," he said.
©Copyright 1996, St. Petersburg Times. All rights reserved.
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