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City Council approves single administrator for sworn workers—comp after heated debate over transition risks
Summary
After hours of public comment and council debate, Los Angeles City Council voted 10-4 to move toward a single third-party administrator for sworn workers' compensation claims, citing roughly $460,000——60,000 in annual savings while staff committed to oversight and contingency planning.
The Los Angeles City Council voted to approve the personnel department—s recommendation to consolidate sworn employees—workers' compensation claims under a single third-party administrator, a move supporters said will cut costs and opponents warned could disrupt service during the transition.
Public commenters and union representatives urged caution. Ron Van Buskirk of Firm Solutions told the council the decision carried a fiscal responsibility question and cautioned, “Please consider that if it ain't broke, don't fix it,” noting the potential for transition errors to erase projected savings. Tim Sands, work-comp chair for the Los Angeles Police Protective League, said his members feared interruptions in service and cited a firefighters—union letter that described early problems when Presidium previously took over a department account, though that letter also later praised Presidium—s improvements.
Personnel department officials laid out a transition plan. Bill Fujioka said his department would "make an absolute commitment to work with the various entities," proposing weekly transition meetings, contingency planning and audits. Diana Britt, chief of the workers' compensation division, told the council the current vendor contracts would be extended through June to allow time to install systems, train and hire staff and to stage the transfer of roughly 7,500 claims. She said the department would encourage experienced Firm Solutions staff to join the incoming administrator and would maintain a monitoring unit assigned full time to the transition.
Council debate focused on two competing priorities: potential fiscal savings versus the risk of service disruption. Councilmember Goldberg argued the single-administrator model would save "about a half $1,000,000" a year by consolidating sworn claims and that the difference between finalists was small; she moved for the personnel recommendation with auditing and backup provisions. Councilmember Alatorre and others said police and fire claim volumes and complexity differ and questioned whether Presidium had equivalent, contemporaneous police experience.
Several councilmembers proposed alternatives during the debate, including reopening the procurement process for separate police and fire contracts or continuing current contracts for a year while issuing a new RFP. Assistant city attorneys and the CAO clarified legal limits on reopening bids without a formal RFP.
After extended discussion and procedural votes, the council recorded the final tabulation on the personnel recommendation: 10 ayes and 4 noes. The motion approved the personnel department's approach with explicit instructions for oversight, including audits and a contingency plan to bring claims back in-house or transition to a new administrator if service problems arise.
The personnel department committed to report regularly to the personnel committee during the transition. The council did not name a new contract provider on the floor; implementation steps and contract specifics will be handled by the personnel department and return to committee as required.
