Tobacco smokers are taking the heat again.
The San Mateo County Board of Supervisors last week unanimously approved a resolution that effectively takes smokers out of the hiring pool for investigators and sheriff's deputies.
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Sheriff Don Horsley and the Board of Supervisors say they want to avoid increased workers' compensation claims from employees who develop diseases linked to smoking.
Because a state law sets presumptive guidelines to follow when a sworn officer or firefighter contracts a disease that could be contracted on the job, Horsley said frivolous claims have cost the department a sizable amount of funds. For example, firefighters or officers that contract diseases related to smoking, can presume it was contracted on the job and file a workers' compensation claim accordingly.
The department has paid more than $6 million for claims over the last five years.
"If smoking is contributory to those diseases, then it seems to me that we shouldn't hire smokers," Horsley said. "Regardless of that, we think it will make for a healthier work force."
Horsley dismisses critics that say the measure is discriminatory, citing the importance of law enforcement's public image. "We routinely hold law enforcement to a higher standard," he said, adding that police officers and deputies are role models in any community.
"I'm supportive of real presumptives, but something like cancer from smoking, that's a lifestyle choice. Cancer is a different story in my opinion."
The reactionary measure met no opposition at the Board of Supervisors' meeting June 6, passing unanimously among more than 20 items on the consent agenda.
Third District Supervisor Rich Gordon said the workers' compensation claims are the critical component of this decision. He doesn't think it is his place to dictate to people what health or lifestyle choices they make, but "it costs us a lot of money" to pay these claims, he said.
"I just think, in terms of wise stewardship of the citizens' tax dollar is plenty of reason to support the sheriff's plan. I feel like I'm elected to be a steward of our public treasury and I think that's part of my job."
Without those presumptives in place, Gordon said the plan would not have been as easy to support.
Sheriff's Lt. John Quinlan said there is a "lot of taxpayer money going out to lawsuit claims." Of the 33 sheriff's department employees on the Coastside, Quinlan says only three are smokers.
However, like Horsley, Quinlan supports the presumptives and says law enforcement personnel face significant risk and injury when on duty. "We're the only people that can't say no. We have to go into everything," he said.
Because of that, "We're exposed to a lot more than most people," he added. Quinlan said he's been in more than a hundred fires in his 22 years in law enforcement, and there's plenty of cause for alarm from calls like that
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