N.Y. General Municipal Law § 219-s: Participation and service credit

§ 219-s. Participation and service credit. 1. A participant must be

eligible to participate in a supplemental award program provided under

this article if the participant has reached entitlement age and has

completed at least one decade of service in the timeframe designated by

the sponsor.

2. A decade of service shall be credited under a supplemental award

program for each calendar year in the timeframe designated by the

sponsor.

3. In order to provide credit each sponsor shall review its prior

membership rosters to determine the number of decades of credit for each

participant who is entitled to credit. In making this analysis, the

standards for active service set forth in subdivision (c) of section two

hundred seventeen or subdivision three of section two hundred nineteen-m

of this chapter and adopted by the sponsor shall be used. Approval for

such prior service shall require certification by the president,

secretary and chief of the volunteer fire company.

4. In computing credit for those participants 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.

5. Sponsors may provide credit to participants whose service was

interrupted by full-time extended obligatory military service or by a

single voluntary enlistment not to exceed four years in the armed forces

of the United States.

6. The president, secretary and chief or comparable officers of each

volunteer company shall submit to the governing board of the sponsor a

list of all participants, certified under oath, which shall identify

those participants who have qualified for credit under the award program

for the previous year. Such list shall be submitted annually by March

thirty-first or otherwise as provided by local resolution and shall be

accompanied by such membership records as the governing board may

require to substantiate the accuracy of the list. Notwithstanding the

provision of this subdivision a participant may request that his or her

name be deleted from said list as a "participant." Such request for

deletion shall be in writing and shall remain effective until withdrawn

in the same manner.

7. The governing board of the sponsor shall review the list and may

delete the name of any person whose point accumulation has not been

adequately documented. Thereafter, the governing board shall approve the

list and return a copy of the list to the appropriate company and

forward a certified copy of the approved list to the program

administrator.

8. Upon receipt of the approved list the company shall post the list

at its principal headquarters for at least thirty days. A participant

whose name does not appear on the approved list shall have the right to

appeal within thirty days of posting of the list. The appeal shall be in

writing and mailed to the clerk or secretary of the governing board of

the sponsor, which shall investigate the appeal. The decision of the

governing board shall be subject to judicial review pursuant to article

seventy-eight of the civil practice law and rules.