To a lot of you, this may sound obvious and not new information. However, we have run across several situations here in NY State where the LOSAP points were being tracked based on another period and not a calendar year.
I’ve run into it before in Villages, which typically run on a 6/1 to 5/31 fiscal year cycle (not all Villages, but the majority, operate on this fiscal year). In these cases the fire department was tracking points in accordance with that fiscal year. In addition, some LOSAP vendors will use a valuation date, or anniversary date, other than 1/1 or 12/31. What I’ve seen in the past are departments keeping the points based on the established “plan year” and not the calendar year.
So why does it have to be a calendar year? Well, the statute defines a “Year of firefighting service” as “a twelve month period during which an active volunteer firefighter participates in the fire service and satisfies the minimum requirements of participation established by the sponsoring organization maintaining the program which shall be applied on a consistent and uniform basis, subject to the minimum standards established by the sponsoring organization.” So this section of statute doesn’t require it to be a calendar year, just a 12-month period.
However, other sections of the statute reference a calendar year. The “buyback” portions of the statute refer to “calendar years” preceding the effective date or adoption date.
But the key section is the point system section of the statute, which is § 217(c) and states “A year of firefighting service shall be credited under a service award program for each calendar year after establishment of the program in which an active volunteer firefighter accumulates at least fifty points.“
Hence, the requirement to track points and service on a calendar year.
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