Portland City Council voted 4-1 today to take on a fight with a former firefighter turned famous chef who believes he should be receiving $3,200 a month in disability payments.

Chef Thomas Hurley: Disabled much?
  • via Cornichon
  • Chef Thomas Hurley: Disabled much?

In a tense debate peppered with interruptions, the council and firefighters union reps discussed who is to blame for Hurley's case: did the city wrongfully terminate a disabled employee or was Hurley illicitly milking the city's recently-reformed disability system?

Commissioners Fish and Saltzman argued in favor of letting the city lawyer take on the legal challenge and duke out who's right and wrong in court. Commissioner Leonard thinks the city will lose the case and wants to continue negotiating with the firefighter's union.

Hurley's story is a strange one. Portland Food and Drink has the best summation of how Hurley wound up as a famous chef on city disability. In 1993, he hurt his back and knee on the job and had to quit fighting fires, receiving instead an estimated $3,200 a month in disability payments. The city paid for him to retrain for a new job, footing the bill for his tuition at the French Culinary Institute in New York. Hurley moved back to Portland and opened the successful restaurant Hurley's in NW. But then he decided there were greener culinary pastures in Seattle, closed Hurley and then opens a restaurant in Seattle, which failed.

After an Oregonian investigation showed one in nine Portlad firefighters and police were receiving disability payments (including Hurley), Portland voted with an overwhelming 85 percent majority to reform the Firefighter and Police Disability and Retirement system (FPD&R). Under the new rules, police and firefighters cannot receive disability if they earn a living in a new job.

Doctors declared Chef Hurley fit for work, so the city offered him a light labor non-firefighting job. But Hurley refused to take the job, so the city cut off his disability checks. That led Hurley to sue the city for $2 million. Unable to reach a settlement through negotiation, the case will likely now head to the courts.