April 2019 – Page 2 – Firefly Admin Inc.

BENEFICIARY DESIGNATIONS

April 11, 2019

One of the main purposes of a LOSAP is to reward those who volunteer their time at the local fire department or ambulance. In the overwhelming majority of cases, this means paying the volunteer when he/she reaches the age of entitlement. However, a provision must be made in the event a volunteer dies before reaching…

CLARIFYING THE MARCH 31ST DEADLINE

April 10, 2019

Yesterday a question came in about the March 31st deadline in the New York State law. I thought it would be worth clarifying here again. The NY State General Municipal Law requires that the fire company submit the list of members of the fire company identifying those volunteers that earned 50 points during the calendar year to…

NY STATE LOSAP POINTS SHOULD BE TRACKED ON A CALENDAR YEAR

April 9, 2019

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…

DIFFERENCE BETWEEN DEFINED BENEFIT & DEFINED CONTRIBUTION PLANS

April 8, 2019

The General Municipal Law defines a Defined Benefit Plan and Defined Contribution Plan as follows: 2.“Defined benefit plan” means any service award program that provides to eligible volunteer firefighters, a benefit that is definitely determinable under the program without reference to the amount contributed to the program on the participant’s behalf or to any income,…

MEMORY

April 5, 2019

Memory is a funny thing. Someone can be really good at memorizing facts and recalling those facts. But memory of an event that happens in real time is completely different, and very hard to recall with 100% accuracy. Two or more people can be at the very same event, and remember that event very differently. …

ONE PERSON DRILL?

April 4, 2019

An interesting question was posed to me today – can a volunteer who participates in a one-person drill be awarded a point under the drill category? My initial reaction was no – there is no such thing as a one-person drill. But then I stopped to think about it. Article 11-A doesn’t define a drill.…

STRATEGIC THINKING

April 3, 2019

A year or two ago I attended some training given by Krieger Solutions. The training was called “Communicating to Connect”, and in the training we learned how to understand our own communication style and how others communicate. By having this understanding, we are then able to more effectively communicate with one another. It was a…

REPEAL OF LOCAL GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEE RESTRICTION

April 2, 2019

Up until December 2015, § 217(f) the New York State General Municipal Law stated the following: In computing credit for those active volunteer firefighters who also serve as paid employees within a political subdivision of the state, credit shall not be given for activities performed during the individual’s regularly assigned work periods. This section of…

FIRE DISTRICT LOSAP EXPENDITURES

April 1, 2019

There is a lot of very good information available from the State of New York regarding government spending. Financial data for each type of government is available for download and review. The LOSAP expenditure falls under the group heading of Employee Benefits. The specific category is labeled LOSAP/Miscellaneous, and I am unsure what type of…

Month: April 2019