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Committee orders OJI policy enforced after review; current sheriff cases grandfathered until return to work
Summary
Legal counsel and finance raised concerns that sheriff’s office had been paying a supplement beyond the OJI plan’s allowable payments; committee voted to allow two existing sheriff employees receiving the supplemental third to conclude current payments but to enforce the OJI plan going forward and apply the plan uniformly across county employees.
Legal counsel told the Self Insurance Board Committee that language in the county’s OJI policy (page 5, section 1‑103) provides exclusive authority for on‑the‑job injury payments and does not authorize department‑level deviations. Committee members said the sheriff’s office had been supplementing OJI income to one‑third of salary from departmental budgets for certain employees and that practice raised legal and equity concerns.
The legal director and the finance director explained that allowing a carve‑out for the sheriff’s office exposes the county to discrimination claims from other county employees and may produce unintended payroll, tax and retirement‑credit consequences. The board discussed the history of the practice and the rationale previously offered by the sheriff’s office but concluded the policy requires uniform application.
The committee voted to allow the two sheriff employees currently receiving supplemental payments to continue under the existing arrangements until they conclude their OJI periods and return to work, but to stop any future deviations and to apply the OJI policy as written to all county employees going forward. Members directed staff to calculate the historical cost of the deviation and to provide a year‑by‑year accounting for the records.
