Congressman Raul Ruiz returned to the Coachella Valley on Friday to announce that he’s introducing a bill to reform what he believes is an “outdated” death benefits system for law enforcement officers lost in the line of duty that “shortchanges” their families.
The bill, entitled “Heroes Leslie Zerebny and Gilbert Vega First Responder Survivor Support Act,” is being announced about a year and a half after the deaths of officers Zerebny and Vega, who were shot and killed while responding to a domestic disturbance. Zerebny had just returned from maternity leave. And Vega was working on a day he wasn’t scheduled and had stayed on the force five years beyond the point at which his retirement benefits maxed out. The two officers were two of the country’s sixty-six officers shot and killed in the line of duty in 2016.
In front of the Palm Springs Police Department, addressing an audience that included members of police and fire departments from throughout the valley, the press, friends and family members of fallen officers and Palm Springs Mayor Robert Moon, Ruiz said that he remembered when he was called about officers Zerebny and Vega.
“I saw the look on the faces of the men and women in uniform, who ask themselves the question—the natural question when something like this happens—‘Could I be next?’”
He also recalled working as a first responder himself, during his years as an ER doctor. During those years, he said, he and his colleagues often asked themselves, “‘What could we have done differently might have changed the outcome?'”
After commemorating those who’ve passed, Ruiz moved on to explain the tangible implications of his bill.
Channeling his former life as a doctor diagnosing patients’ problems, Ruiz approached the aftermath of the tragedy as systemically as possible. He called his first steps “a diagnostic workup.”
What he found was that the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968, which governs how benefits to the families of fallen officers are allocated, was in need of reform. “Family survivors are being shortchanged,” he said.
Many of these families have faced debt problems and have had to wait significant amounts of time for the government to allocate them the benefits to which they are entitled. The current benefit model doesn’t account for inflation, a problem that is particularly severe when members of these families want to pursue an education, Ruiz said.
“Our officers and firefighters pay the ultimate price protecting you and me and our community and the least we can do is ensure that their families have the support and resources they need,” he said.
Dr. Ruiz’s bill proposes remedies to match these diagnoses. If passed, it will increase death and disability benefit from $350,000 to $500,000, a figure based on research into common debts families are facing as well as the average cost of raising a child from birth to eighteen. It will move up the benefit determination date so families don’t have to wait, increase the education benefit and attach figures to inflation rates.
Matt Zerebny, Officer Lesley Zerebny’s father-in-law, addressed the audience after Congressman Ruiz. He’s dedicated himself to the cause since the tragedy, starting a clothing line to raise funds and a national challenge called “Ask Not” that looks for ways that community members can help take care of each other.
Zerebny told the audience that he was a Republican but emphasized the importance of bipartisanship in explaining the work he’s done with Ruiz. “I didn’t care what his political background was,” he said of Ruiz. “I just knew he was so compassionate to our family that I wanted to work with him.”
The audience also heard from Palm Springs Police Chief Bryan Reyes and Cathedral City Fire Chief Paul Wilson. Reyes, who was in the Marine Corps from 1988-1997, took note of it being the 73rd anniversary of Iwo Jima, where six Marines raised an American flag after emerging victorious against the Imperial Japanese Army. The act, he said is “like the raising of the flag for our law enforcement and fire professionals.”
“The very first day a law enforcement officer or a firefighter takes an oath to protect and serve our communities, they have in essence signed a blank check.
“That blank check, where you see the date, is always marked ‘to be determined;’ The dollar amount, ‘up to and including my life;’ in the memo section where it says ‘for,’ it’s ‘for you’, the public, the community we serve,” he said.
Fire Chief Wilson couldn’t help but get a little choked up explaining his personal connection to the act. He said that he often fears for the lives of his two adult children who work as police officers as well as those of the men and women in his department.
Longer droughts and increasingly volatile climate in California translate to more dangerous work for local fire departments.
“We lost two firefighters this year fighting wildfires,” he said, referring to Garret Paiz and Corey Iverson. “We used to have wildfire season that lasted four months. Wildfire season now lasts ten months, almost twelve months.”
The Desert Sun asked Ruiz if he sees a connection between the first responders who inspired his legislation and the teachers and students who have taken over the news cycle since the February 14 shooting at Stoneman Douglas High School Parkland, Florida.
His response: “Yes, absolutely.”
“These first responders are responding to calls that you wouldn’t expect to be dangerous,” he said.
“When you’re in a situation where violence is becoming a bigger reality, than not only will teachers start to question ‘Will they be next?’ Students and parents around the whole country will start to ask the questions, ‘Is my kid’s school safe?’ and ‘Will my kids be okay going to school?”
