Firefighter and City Commissioners duel over disability award

PORTLAND, Ore. - Some people say Thomas Hurley - a Portland firefighter-turned-chef - is working the system to get money he doesn't deserve. However, others say that he is doing nothing wrong.

City Commissioners are fighting over what to do next.
    
Hurley traded his firefighting gear for a chef's coat, as seen here on the web site "In Good Taste." However, some on the City Council want him back on the job.

Commissioner Dan Saltzman says for years Hurley was getting more than $3,000 a month in disability pay while he was running three high end restaurants, including Hurley's on Northwest Kearney.

"Nothing against Mister Hurley personally, but I do take issue with someone who is - in my opinion - working the system," said Saltzman.

Voters reformed the disability system in 2006, at which time the board ordered Hurley back for light duty as approved by a doctor, but he refused and then was cut off from benefits.

An arbitrator now says the city has to pay him more than $100,000 in back disability pay, for firing him the wrong way.

"We paid to retrain him as a chef and he's been a successful chef," said Saltzman. "Now he won't come back to work, so why should we be rewarding these types of abuses?"

Saltzman wants to pass a resolution to fight that award in court.

However, Commissioner Randy Leonard says the city will lose that fight and that Hurley will stay off work during the appeal process is complete. In the end, Leonard says, Hurley may end up with much more of taxpayer money.

Instead, Leonard plans to order Hurley back to work, only this time he'll do it the right way.

The City Commissioners are going to talk about that resolution again next week, deciding what to do about paying the award.

One of Hurley's attorneys says Hurley believes he is simply following the system and he is not the rip-off artist as some have portrayed him to be. 

The attorney also stated that Hurley believes that people think he is swimming in money, but he says some of the restaurants that Hurley ran were complete failures, and that Hurley is currently unemployed and living in San Francisco.