N.Y. General Municipal Law § 219-d: Authorization to adopt service award programs

§ 219-d. Authorization to adopt service award programs. 1. No

political subdivision shall be required to adopt a service award

program. Any service award program adopted pursuant to this section

shall be governed by the provisions of this article.

2. A political subdivision may adopt a service award program for the

volunteer ambulance workers of ambulance companies which are either:

(a) a municipal ambulance service of the political subdivision; or

(b) a voluntary ambulance service which provides service to the

political subdivision under contract with the governing board thereof

and has its principal headquarters in the political subdivision.

3. A service award program may be adopted only by resolution of the

governing board of a political subdivision receiving the affirmative

vote of at least sixty percent of the governing board and the approval

of a proposition authorizing the adoption of the program at a referendum

of the electors of the political subdivision.

4. The resolution authorizing adoption of a service award program

shall state:

(a) the name of each volunteer ambulance company having volunteer

ambulance workers who are potential participants in the program;

(b) the entitlement age under the program;

(c) the number of years of ambulance service required to obtain a

nonforfeitable right to a service award;

(d) the activities for which points shall be granted toward a year of

ambulance service;

(e) the amount of the contribution to the program to be made by the

sponsor on behalf of each participant credited with a year of ambulance

service;

(f) the extent to which the program provides for contributions for

ambulance service rendered by a participant during one or more of the

five calendar years immediately preceding the adoption of the program;

(g) in the case of a service award program which provides for

contributions for ambulance service rendered by a participant during one

or more of the five calendar years immediately preceding the adoption of

the program, the timing and method of financing such contributions;

(h) the date as of which the program shall take effect;

(i) in the case of a service award program to take effect on a day

other than the first day of January, whether points toward a year of

ambulance service shall be granted for activities performed prior to the

effective date of the program and on or after the immediately preceding

first day of January; and

(j) the date on which the proposition authorizing the adoption of the

program shall be submitted to referendum.

5. The proposition authorizing adoption of the service award program

shall be submitted to referendum not less than thirty days and not more

than ninety days after the governing board votes to authorize the

adoption of the program. Notice of the referendum shall be published at

least once, not less than fourteen days prior to the date of the

referendum, in the official newspaper of the political subdivision or,

if the political subdivision does not have an official newspaper, in one

or more newspapers having general circulation in the political

subdivision. The referendum shall be conducted and the cost thereof

charged in the same manner as other referenda held by the political

subdivision.

6. The proposition shall state: (a) the estimated annual cost of the

service award program;

(b) the portion of the estimated annual cost of the program, if any,

to be paid by one or more other political subdivisions;

(c) the estimated annual cost per participant;

(d) in the case of a proposition to be voted on at a referendum held

on or after January first, nineteen hundred ninety-five, the estimated

annual administration fee;

(e) the extent to which the program provides for contributions for

ambulance service rendered by a participant during one or more of the

five calendar years immediately preceding the adoption of the program

and the estimated cost thereof; and

(f) in the case of a service award program to take effect on a day

other than the first day of January, whether points toward a year of

ambulance service shall be granted for activities performed prior to the

effective date of the program and on or after the immediately preceding

first day of January.

7. Upon approval of the proposition, the service award program shall

be deemed adopted by the political subdivision in accordance with the

terms of the resolution adopted by the governing board.

8. (a) Once a service award program has been adopted, participation

therein by the sponsor may be terminated, or the amount of the sponsor's

contribution to the program may be changed, or the program may be

amended to provide for contributions for ambulance service rendered by a

participant during one or more of the five calendar years immediately

preceding the adoption of the program, by resolution of the governing

board of the sponsor receiving the affirmative vote of at least sixty

percent of the governing board and the approval of a proposition at a

referendum of the electors of the sponsor.

(b) The entitlement age, the number of years of ambulance service

required to obtain a nonforfeitable right to a service award, and the

activities for which points shall be granted toward a year of ambulance

service may be changed by resolution adopted by the affirmative vote of

at least sixty percent of the governing board of the sponsor without

referendum; provided, that, consistent with the provisions of

subdivision three of section two hundred nineteen-e of this article, if

the effect of the amendment is to increase the number of points granted

for the performance of the activity, decrease the amount of an activity

required to earn the points granted for the performance of the activity,

or both, such amendment shall be subject to a mandatory referendum. Any

amendment to a service award program shall only take effect as of the

first of January next succeeding completion of the proceedings required

for adoption of the amendment and shall only apply prospectively.

(c) The sponsor's participation in a service award program adopted for

the volunteer ambulance workers of one or more ambulance companies

described in paragraph (b) of subdivision two of this section shall be

suspended to the extent that service credit shall not be granted for

activities performed by the volunteer ambulance workers of any such

ambulance company during any period in which the company ceases to

provide service to the sponsor under contract with the governing board

thereof.