My name is Brian Dufner, I was a business owner in Hopkins for 19 years.  I became further invested in my community when I volunteered for the Hopkins Fire Department where I was a part-time/paid-on-call firefighter for 17 years.  While working as a firefighter, I knew that I could get into dangerous situations – it comes with the territory.  There is one particular memory that I recall in 1991 when we responded to a fire, and my partner and I rescued three babies.  My service as a firefighter was for the personal reward of knowing that I made a difference in someone’s life, and I never sought recognition.

Unfortunately, my career as a firefighter was cut short due to a divorce.  Being a part-time single parent, I was unable to continue with the Hopkins Fire Department, so I had to leave in 2005, three years before I was eligible for 100% retirement.

Since retiring from the Hopkins Fire Department, I have had multiple surgeries as a result of a degenerative condition.  In August and October of 2008, I had each of my hips replaced.  In 2010, I had extensive back surgery, with additional back surgery in 2012.  Those surgeries have left me with debilitating pain and a reduced range of motion.  As a result of these health issues, I had to close my Hopkins barber shop.  I am now on Social Security disability and I am struggling to pay my bills.

In the last year, I have sold nearly everything I own in an effort to raise enough money to pay my bills, including my mortgage.  I am at a point where I will be unable to make my house payments after May of 2016.  The thought of having to leave my home in Hopkins, where I have lived for 17 years, owned a local business, and served as a volunteer firefighter for the citizens of Hopkins, is hard to imagine.  It is especially hard to believe when I have a pension with the Hopkins Fire Department that I cannot collect due to Minnesota state law.

Minnesota Statute 424A.02 Sub. 1 prevents me from collecting the pension that I earned with the Hopkins Fire Department because I am 45 years old, not 50, as the law requires.  I am asking for your help to change this law – a law that does not take into account a person’s individual circumstances.  If I were an active member of the Hopkins Fire Department and, for example, had an accident at my house, and my doctor said that I was unable to work as a firefighter, the law would allow for my pension to be paid in full.  Since my pension is considered deferred because I am under 50 years old, they will not pay me for another five years.  If I could physically work until then, I would, but due to my disability, I cannot.  This is why I am asking for your help today.  I feel that it is important to mention that there will be others facing similar circumstances, so I would not be the only one to benefit from a change in the state law.  I would appreciate your signature on my petition and whatever you may be able to do to move this change in the state law forward.  I am not looking for handouts.  I am just trying to collect a pension that is rightfully mine.  I have been working with Senator David Hann who wrote a new bill which the City of Hopkins will not honor.  With the Senate and the Minnesota Secretary of State behind me one hundred percent, you would think the Hopkins Fire Department would comply.