STAFF REPORT - CITY COUNCIL/SUCCESSOR AGENCY/PUBLIC FINANCE AUTHORITY

Senior Administrative Analyst and City Manager Recommend City Council Approve Resolution 3906 Authorizing Workers’ Compensation Coverage for Off-Duty Peace Officers Injured Out of State.

In September 2018, Governor Brown signed  into law AB 1749, effective January 1, 2019. The law specifically amends the Labor Code to permit public agencies to accept liability for workers’ compensation of a peace officer, if the peace officer “is injured, dies, or is disabled from performing his or her duties as a peace officer by reason of engaging in the apprehension or attempted apprehension of law violators or suspected law violators, or protection or preservation of life or property, or the preservation of the peace, outside the state of California, but was not at the time acting under the immediate direction of his or her employer…”.

The law does not create a mandate that a public employer accept workers’ compensation liability under the circumstances described above. Rather, the law expressly states that an employer may accept liability and provide benefits at its discretion or in accordance with an adopted resolution, as long as the employer decides that providing benefits serves the public purpose of the employer.

PARSAC and its excess providers, LAWCX and CSAC, have amended their Memoranda of Coverage to provide workers’ compensation coverage in accordance with the new law.