HOUSE BILL 211

51st legislature - STATE OF NEW MEXICO - second session, 2014

INTRODUCED BY

Paul A. Pacheco

AN ACT

RELATING TO PENSIONS; ENACTING THE LINE OF DUTY INJURY ACT; ENCOURAGING AND PROVIDING A PROCESS THROUGH WHICH A PUBLIC SAFETY EMPLOYEE INJURED IN THE LINE OF DUTY WHILE PERFORMING A NON-ADMINISTRATIVE PUBLIC SAFETY FUNCTION OR DUTY MAY BE GRANTED DUTY INJURY LEAVE AND CONTINUE TO ACCRUE SERVICE CREDIT FOR THE DURATION OF THE DUTY INJURY LEAVE.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF NEW MEXICO:

     SECTION 1. [NEW MATERIAL] SHORT TITLE.--This act may be cited as the "Line of Duty Injury Act".

     SECTION 2. [NEW MATERIAL] PURPOSE.--The purpose of the Line of Duty Injury Act is to provide guidelines for, and encourage state, local and municipal public safety employers to develop, policies and procedures to grant duty injury leave to public safety employees who, while on duty and as a result of performing non-administrative public safety functions or duties, sustain a serious bodily injury or disfigurement that is a direct result of an aggressive action taken toward the public safety employee by another person or was sustained in an inherently dangerous situation or location and which injury renders the public safety employee absent from work on injury-related department leave or workers' compensation leave.

     SECTION 3. [NEW MATERIAL] DEFINITIONS.--As used in the Line of Duty Injury Act:

          A. "committee" means the duty injury review committee for a department;

          B. "department" means any affiliated public employer as defined pursuant to the Public Employees Retirement Act that employs a public safety employee, including:

                (1) a police, sheriff's or fire department administered by a county or a municipality;

                (2) the corrections department;

                (3) the children, youth and families department; 

                (4) the department of public safety; and

                (5) the department of game and fish;

          C. "department chief" means the head of a department or the department chief's designee;

          D. "duty injury" means a serious bodily injury or disfigurement, as determined by a department chief, that is sustained by a public safety employee while the employee is on duty and is the direct result of an aggressive action taken toward the public safety employee by another person or was sustained while the public safety function or duty performed by the employee occurred in an inherently dangerous situation;

          E. "duty injury leave" means paid leave, granted at the discretion of a department chief, and awarded to a public safety employee who has sustained a duty injury;

          F. "enact" means the action by a governing body to pass a resolution or otherwise legally approve a policy or procedure for a department and, through such action by the governing body, obligates the department;

          G. "governing body" means a body authorized to enact policies and procedures on behalf of the state, a county or a municipality and includes a city council or city commission of a city, the board of trustees of a town or village, the council of an incorporated county and the board of county commissioners of an H class county; and

          H. "public safety employee" means a full-time and salaried employee of a department who is employed as:

                (1) a commissioned or certified law enforcement officer;

                (2) a firefighter;

                (3) an adult correctional officer;

                (4) a juvenile correctional officer; or

                (5) a municipal detention officer.

     SECTION 4. [NEW MATERIAL] AUTHORITY TO IMPLEMENT DUTY INJURY LEAVE POLICIES.--A governing body may enact policies under which a department may grant duty injury leave to public safety employees who sustain a duty injury.

     SECTION 5. [NEW MATERIAL] POLICIES AND PROCEDURES CRITERIA.--

          A. Once policies to grant duty injury leave are enacted by the governing body of a department, if such leave is approved by the department chief, a public safety employee may be granted duty injury leave for a duty injury. At the department chief's discretion, duty injury leave may be awarded to a public safety employee for a duty injury sustained before the effective date of the provisions of the Line of Duty Injury Act; provided, however, that any duty injury leave awarded shall be applicable only to leave dates occurring on or after July 1, 2014.

          B. A governing body shall direct the applicable department to establish procedures, including duty injury leave application and duty injury leave granting procedures consistent with the Line of Duty Injury Act and in compliance with the department's applicable workers' compensation administration policy. At a minimum, the procedures shall establish that:

                (1) the award of duty injury leave shall replace or supplement the public safety employee's workers' compensation income benefit;

                (2) the maximum allowable hours of duty injury leave awarded to a public safety employee shall not exceed one thousand five hundred hours in any twelve-month period or thirty-two hours in any seven-day period;

                (3) if a physician provides the department a signed release indicating that it is medically appropriate for a public safety employee awarded duty injury leave to return to work in a limited capacity, the department chief may require the employee to perform modified or limited-duty assignments. Refusal by the employee to accept the required modified or limited-duty assignment may result in termination of duty injury leave;

                (4) leave taken by a public safety employee who returns to work on a modified or limited-duty assignment and who uses leave for a purpose unrelated to the sustained duty injury shall be subject to the department's leave policies and procedures in effect for all such non-duty injury leave;

                (5) upon a public safety employee's return to work after medical release to full duty, any unused duty injury leave awarded shall be forfeited;

                (6) there shall be established a reasonable period of time within which the department chief shall be required to respond to an application for duty injury leave, and such period of time shall not exceed twenty-eight calendar days;

                (7) within the period of time established pursuant to Paragraph (6) of this subsection, a public safety employee who applies for duty injury leave shall be notified in writing of the final decision of the department chief; and

                (8) a review process through which a public safety employee whose application for duty injury leave is denied by the department chief may appeal the denial. The approval or denial of an application shall be in writing and shall include instructions and an explanation of the procedure and time line for appeal.

     SECTION 6. [NEW MATERIAL] DUTY INJURY REVIEW COMMITTEE.--

          A. A department administering a duty injury leave policy pursuant to the provisions of the Line of Duty Injury Act shall establish a duty injury review committee. The committee shall consist of an odd number of members who are appointed by the department chief. Member vacancies shall be filled by appointments made by the department chief.

          B. The committee shall meet on a regular basis as necessary to timely review the eligibility of a public safety employee's application for duty injury leave.

          C. On a case-by-case basis, the committee shall review duty injury applications and consider pertinent information to determine if an injury sustained by a public safety employee qualifies as a duty injury. Such review shall be consistent with the eligibility procedures provided pursuant to Section 5 of the Line of Duty Injury Act. If the committee determines that a public safety employee's sustained injury is a duty injury, prior to making any recommendation to the department chief, the committee shall also consider whether, in the employee's performance of duties in which the injury was sustained, the employee:

                (1)  may have caused the injury by violating any law, policy or procedure; or

                (2) may be guilty of misconduct directly associated with the injury.

          D. Any determination made by the committee pursuant to Paragraph (1) or (2) of Subsection C of this section shall not be considered as evidence in any administrative or legal proceeding. 

          E. After reviewing the application for duty injury leave, the committee shall provide a written recommendation for approval or denial of the application to the department chief.

     SECTION 7. [NEW MATERIAL] APPROVAL OR DENIAL BY DEPARTMENT CHIEF.--The department chief shall approve or deny each application for duty injury leave. In deciding whether to approve or deny the application, the department chief shall take into consideration any recommendations of the committee along with any other information that, in the department chief's discretion, is deemed pertinent to the determination.

     SECTION 8. [NEW MATERIAL] FALSE CLAIMS FOR OR MISUSE OF DUTY INJURY LEAVE APPLICATION.--Public safety employees who apply for duty injury leave and who are found to have falsely claimed a duty injury or to have misused duty injury leave may be subject to disciplinary action pursuant to department policy.

     SECTION 9. EFFECTIVE DATE.--The effective date of the provisions of this act is July 1, 2014.

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