N.Y. Politicians Want COVID-19 LODD Benefits for First Responders

Staten Island Advance, N.Y.

In a joint letter, members of Staten Island’s political delegation today called on Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Mayor Bill de Blasio to work with relevant pension boards to ensure that first responders and other essential employees who die as a result of the coronavirus (COVID-19) be guaranteed contractual line-of-duty death benefit and payments.

“There cannot be any uncertainty about death benefits as we are sending our first responders and essential workers into potential danger,” said Councilman Joe Borelli (R-South Shore). “We must at least take this stress off their shoulders.”

The letter, signed by Borelli, Borough President James Oddo (R), Minority Leader Steven Matteo (R-Mid Island), Councilwoman Debi Rose (D-North Shore), Assemblywoman Nicole Malliotakis (R-East Shore/South Brooklyn), Assemblyman Mike Reilly (R-South Shore), Assemblyman Charles Fall (D-North Shore), Assemblyman Michael Cusick (D-Mid Island), Senator Andrew Lanza (R-Staten Island), Senator Diane Savino (D-North Shore), among others, comes as the FDNY said reported the busiest five days for the EMS in its history last week.

The coronavirus has also deeply affected the NYPD, which has 930 employees who tested positive as of Monday.

“The tragic death of Detective Cedric Dixon and NYPD employees Dennis Dickson and Giacomina Barr-Brown reminds us of the unseen challenges faced by New York’s first responders and essential employees,” reads the letter, which was written before the NYPD announced an additional two deaths within the department on Monday.

“As such we are asking you to collaborate with all applicable pension boards to ensure that first responders or essential employees of any city agency, stage agency, or public authority, who perished from COVID-19, is presumed to have contracted the virus in the course of their work, and are, as a result, entitled to a full contractual line-of-duty death benefit and payments," the letter continues.

It is the responsibility of pension boards to decide whether an individual meets the criteria for a line-of-duty death.

Spokespeople for the offices of Cuomo and de Blasio did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the letter.

“Sad we must discuss this, but #FirstResponders & city & state essential workers must be given FULL LINE OF DUTY DEATH BENEFITS per their contracts, if they succumb to #COVID19," Borelli wrote on Twitter. “It must be presumed that they contracted it while working for the public, Period.”COVID