A frequent question I’ve received over the years is about making changes to the points and service credit after the 30-day posting period is complete. You know the story – someone doesn’t pay attention to the posted points and then when the person receives their participant statements, notices he/she was not credited with 50 points…

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New York State Law requires that after the municipal board approves the certified list of firefighters that have qualified for service credit during the previous year, the list must be returned to the fire company to be posted for at least 30 days for review by members. During the 30-day period, a firefighter who was…

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On Friday we tackled the concept that in New York State, the municipal sponsor must approve the annual listing of firefighters that earned service credit (50 points) during the year. This brings us to one of the more frequently misunderstood portions the statute. Here is §219-a(d) of the New York State General Municipal Law: ​(d) The…

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In the last post we discussed that the fire company must compile the list of volunteers indicating which of them earned service credit during the year. This list must be certified under oath and submitted to the sponsoring political subdivision by March 31st. General Municipal Law §219-a(d) requires that the governing board of the political subdivision…

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As we reviewed in the last post, it is the responsibility of the fire company to maintain the point system records in accordance with the procedures established by the sponsoring municipality. At the end of each calendar year, the fire company then must submit the final list to the municipal sponsor. Per  §219-a(2)(c) of the…

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It is the time of the year where fire departments across New York State are finalizing the listing of points earned by their volunteer firefighters during calendar year 2018. I thought I’d spend the next several posts working through the process as stipulated in the General Municipal Law, as well as provide some other insights…

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In the prior post, it was discussed if a volunteer on stand-by should be eligible to earn points for also taking a training class or attending a drill during the stand-by period. It’s a great question – the short answer is yes (see prior post for longer answer). But that question is masking the better…

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A question came in the other day about a volunteer participating in a drill, or taking an online training course, while on a stand-by. The question is, can the volunteer receive the point for the drill as well as the stand-by? First the disclaimer – we don’t give legal advice and you should run this…

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