By Kimberly Edds
Orange County Register
ORANGE COUNTY, Calif. — Five Cypress police officers are being called heroes after they rescued an 84-year-old woman from a burning house. The men will be honored for their bravery at tonight’s City Council meeting.
“I think the officers were just wonderful,” said 84-year-old Eleanor Jensen, who is living in a hotel with her 16-year-old dog, Sarah Jane, after the Nov. 25 fire destroyed her home.
But in the two months since the fire, the five officers and the Cypress Police Officers Association, which represents them, have been trying to get paid for the hours they spent being treated for smoke inhalation and being interviewed by arson investigators. The city has spent hundreds of dollars in legal fees fighting a total of $778.48 spread among the five men.
“We want to pay these guys,” said Cypress Mayor Doug Bailey. “We definitely want to pay them.”
But payment comes with a catch, according to a Dec. 11 letter from City Manager John B. Bahorski to Mark Clemons, president of the officers union. The overtime will not be paid unless Clemons signs a letter stating Cypress has no legal obligation to pay officers while they were treated for the injuries they suffered during the rescue and that payment by the city does not set a precedent.
The letter will not be signed, Clemons said.
“It has nothing to do with the money,” Clemons said. “It’s about the treatment.”
Cypress police officers Paul Ruiz, James Brewer, Erik Carlson and officer trainees Brock Paul and Thomas Mellana were about an hour from the end of their shifts when a two-story home on Windsor Circle caught fire.
They found a woman wandering around inside the smoke-filled house and no firefighters. The officers broke a window, broke through the door and carried the disoriented woman out.
The five officers spent more than four hours beyond their normal 12 1/2 -hour shifts dealing with the fallout of the fire, including treatment for smoke inhalation.
All of them returned to the police station after they left the hospital.
Police Department officials, including Chief Mark Yokoyama, approved the overtime.
But Bahorski overruled his decision, saying the city legally does not have to pay the officers for time they spent being treated for their injuries.
Overtime was approved for the supervising sergeant responsible for writing a memo to department leaders about the fire.
The medical treatment was part of a 16 1/2 -hour day the officers put in as part of their duties, Clemons said. Refusal to pay them without strings attached sends a negative message to officers and the public about the city’s priorities, he said.
Bahorski did not respond to requests for interviews for this story. He did not immediately respond to public-record requests for a copy of the Dec. 11 letter.
In a copy of the letter obtained by The Orange County Register, Bahorski argues why the city does not have to pay the five injured officers:
“It has been interpreted that ‘medical attention outside of working hours, or not at the direction of the employer’ is an example of work-related matters for which an employee need not be compensated. Accordingly, there is no state or federal requirement that the City compensate the officers under the circumstances as are present here.”
“With this kind of job, which we do with great pride, I hope that these issues do not distract from what these five people did,” Clemons said. “They put themselves at risk for one person, a citizen of Cypress.”
The officers will be honored at 7 p.m. in Cypress council chambers, 5275 Orange Ave.
Copyright 2009 Orange County Register