§ 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 Such request for deletion shall be in writing and shall remain effective until withdrawn in the same manner.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.
