For City Council Meeting September 8, 2026
TO: Honorable Mayor and City Council
FROM: Tanya Williams, City Manager
AUTHOR: Timothy Sullivan, Assistant City Manager
Title
Request City Council to Adopt Resolution No. 8571 Approving the Industrial Disability Retirement of John Heffelfinger.
Body
RECOMMENDATION
Staff recommends that the City Council:
Adopt a resolution approving the Industrial Disability Retirement of John Heffelfinger.
BACKGROUND
John Heffelfinger is a 59-year-old Fire Engineer hired on September 22, 2003. Mr. Heffelfinger has a workers’ compensation claim that has been accepted and determined to have arisen out of employment with the City of Rialto.
On September 18, 2024, Mr. Heffelfinger sustained an injury to his right shoulder while lifting a pack overhead in the course of performing his usual and customary duties as a Fire Engineer. At the time of injury, he experienced a sharp pain in his right shoulder. Mr. Heffelfinger subsequently underwent right shoulder arthroscopy with rotator cuff repair and open biceps tenodesis on April 18, 2025. The workers’ compensation claim was accepted as industrial and determined to have arisen out of and in the course and scope of his employment with the City.
An MRI of Mr. Heffelfinger’s right shoulder was performed on October 31, 2024, which revealed acromioclavicular osteoarthrosis. He subsequently underwent conservative treatment, including physical therapy and twelve sessions of work conditioning. Following treatment, Dr. Daniel Kharrazi identified several conditions affecting the right shoulder, including torn biceps anchor with a SLAP tear, Grade III rotator cuff tear, biceps pulley lesion with subluxation and instability of the biceps tendon with tearing of the biceps-labral complex, a shoulder labral tear with severe impingement, anterolateral acromial calcification, and acromioclavicular synovitis and osteoarthritis.
On June 8, 2026, Mr. Heffelfinger was evaluated by Independent Medical ...
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