After an executive session Tuesday, Coaldale council members voted to stop paying Police Chief Tim Delaney's Heart and Lung benefits, effective immediately.

It was a 4-2 roll call vote, with Council President Angela Krapf and Brenda Hosler voting to keep paying the benefits. Voting to stop paying the benefits were Linda Miller, Harry Hontz, Thomas Keerans and Michael Doerr.Heart and Lung benefits are the result of a national act which provides public safety personnel with full compensation their full rate of salary and medical expenses while they are unable to work while disabled from an injury that occured during the performance of duty. According to the Heart and Lung Act definition, the employee must have been "engaged in an obligatory task, conduct, service or function which arises from the position."Chief Delaney had been off work since August 2013, when he injured a finger on his "shooting" hand by accidentally shooting himself with a stun gun. Since then, the borough had been responsible for paying one-third of Delaney's $53,000 yearly salary, with the remaining two-thirds paid by Workers Compensation. The borough's insurance carrier does not cover heart and lung benefits.Chief Delaney's phone number is nonpublished and he could not be reached for comment.