Legislators finally do right thing

(PNI) Every now and then, the most astonishing things happen. Pigs take flight, Phoenix freezes over on the Fourth of July, and the most improbable of all? The Arizona Legislature does a good thing.

I know. Amazing, right?

It's hard to believe, but there it is, House Bill 2204.

It's a simple bill, really. It says that a city (or county or state) will continue to pay a portion of the health-insurance costs for the families of its fallen police officers, firefighters and correctional officers.

The bill was prompted, in part, by Glendale's treatment of Cindy Jones. Her 25-year-old husband, Glendale Officer Brad Jones, was killed in the line of duty in October 2011, leaving her with two young children. The city continued the family's health insurance for a year, as required by law.

Several months after his death, Cindy approached city officials to ask if they would continue paying the premiums after the year was up, or at least give her the employee rate -- the one the family would be paying if her husband were still alive.

"Brad's no longer here," she told me a few months ago. "I still have to provide for my kids, not just five years from now, not just 10 years from now, but until they're the age of 18. For me, that's a big worry."

In response, the city offered her the retiree rate: $688 a month, and that's after a subsidy from the police pension fund is applied. That's about 21/2 times what the family would be paying if Officer Jones hadn't been shot to death one night while answering a call to assist a probation officer.

Glendale's incoming mayor, Jerry Weiers, told me in December that he would work on changing the city's policy once he took office. Six weeks into his term, he has followed through on that pledge. As a result, he says Glendale will now pick up the entire insurance tab for the family of any employee who is killed while performing his or her job.

"Doing the right thing is not always hard to do," he told me. "It's just a matter of making people understand it's the right thing."

Which brings us to the Legislature, where the right thing is so often elusive. But not, apparently, this time. At least, not for most of our leaders.

Rep. Bob Robson's HB 2204 would require cities, counties, the state and private prisons to continue offering insurance at the employee rate to the families of law-enforcement officers who die in the line of duty. It would continue until the surviving spouse either remarries or is eligible for Medicare and until the children are grown.

The bill sailed through the Public Safety, Military and Regulatory Affairs Committee on a unanimous vote and cleared the House last week on a 54-5 vote. It now heads to the Senate.

The five who opposed it are Reps. Steve Smith of Maricopa, Carl Seel of Phoenix, Darin Mitchell of the bare mattress, Adam Kwasman of Oro Valley, and Steve Montenegro of Avondale. All five happen to members of Constantin's Army, led by my favorite right-wing Republican Party operative, Constantin Querard.

What they have against police officers' widows, I do not know.

Smith is the legislator with some of the silliest bills going nowhere this year. Among them is one bill to suspend all federal firearms laws and another to reimburse ex-Sen. Russell Pearce for his recall expenses.

I tried calling Smith to find out why he found it unacceptable to use public funds to insure the widows and children of fallen police officers but a moral imperative to use public funds to reimburse Pearce for his non-existent recall expenses. Alas, Smith didn't return my call.

Robson says the bill is simply the right thing to do. He was on the Chandler City Council in 1999 when Officer James Snedigar was shot and killed in a SWAT raid. Officer Snedigar was the first Chandler police officer killed in the line of duty, and Robson says it was an easy call to continue his family on the employee insurance plan.

"We expect these people to do extraordinary things," he told me. "The least we owe them was this."

He's right. It is the least we owe them, and good for him and his colleagues for doing it.

Well, he and 53 of his colleagues, that is.

Reach Roberts at laurie.roberts@ arizonarepublic.com.

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