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| Volunteer Retirement Bill stuck in committee |
| Need Your Help: Statewide |
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The Volunteer Firefighter Length of Service Act (retirement bill) is stuck in committee and needs your help. SB 155 is shown below and there seems to be some confusion in the capitol concerning this bill. This bill currently is in the Pensions committee that is chaired by Senator Dan Foster (from Kanawha County). While at the capitol for firefighters day, this bill was accidentally left off the list of bills the association was supporting and some of you did not know to express your support when speaking to your legislators. When I spoke with Senator Foster to ask him to move this bill, his reply was that he was not aware that our members supported SB 155. This is not good that the committee chair is confused, so I told him we would clear this up and he would hear from many people in the coming days to let him know that we in fact do support SB 155, and that he needs to run it through the Pensions committee and send it on it's way.
The phone number for Senator Foster is 304-357-7866, and his email address is daniel.foster@camc.org Please call his office and tell them you support SB 155 and would he please run this bill in Pensions with a role-call vote. if we can get this bill out of pensions that will be the first step. there was a rumor in Charleston that Sterling Lewis did not support SB 155, that is NOT true, I personally showed him this bill and he does not have a problem with it. Please get as many people to contact Senator Foster as possible from your department, and also ask your friends and family. Ask the secretary to make sure he gets your message if you are unable to speak to him directly. It is Crucial that we get your department on our list of support that will be sent to the Governor and filed as a petition on public record. View the List of Support 
Senate Bill No. 155 (By Senators Unger and Stollings) [Introduced January 10, 2008; referred to the Committee on Pensions; and then to the Committee on Finance.] A BILL to amend the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, by adding thereto a new article, designated §8-15B-1, §8-15B-2, §8-15B-3, §8-15B-4 and §8-15B-5, all relating to establishing the West Virginia Volunteer Firefighter Length of Service Act. Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia: That the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, be amended by adding thereto a new article, designated §8-15B-1, §8-15B-2, §8-15B-3, §8-15B-4 and §8-15B-5, all to read as follows: ARTICLE 15B. WEST VIRGINIA VOLUNTEER FIREFIGHTER LENGTH OF SERVICE ACT. §8-15B-1. Title and legislative intent. (a) This article is known as the "West Virginia Volunteer Firefighter Length of Service Act." (b) It is the intent of the Legislature to provide compensation to volunteer firefighters for length of service. §8-15B-2. Compensation for length of service. This article compensates volunteer firefighters for length of service. In return for the required length of service commitment as a volunteer firefighter, every eligible recipient will receive a retirement pension of four hundred dollars per month for the rest of their life. §8-15B-3. Funding for the program. (a) A new fund is established under this article for the purpose of collecting and distributing moneys to eligible recipients. (b) Every fire department must contribute the sum of two thousand dollars annually to the fund. This payment may come from either the fire department or from county funding in the county in which the department resides. (c) Every fire department must contribute to the fund for at least five years or have submitted a total of ten thousand dollars prior to any payment to the departments eligible recipients. (d) The fund must be established and receiving annual contributions for five years prior to any disbursements of monthly payments to eligible recipients. §8-15B-4. Requirements for recipients prior to any monthly compensation. (a) The fire department must be a member in good standing of the West Virginia State Fireman's Association for their members to be eligible recipients for compensation under this article. (b) Each recipient must be at least sixty years of age. (c) Each recipient must have at least twenty years of active service credit as a volunteer firefighter in a fire department certified to meet the requirements of a fire department by the West Virginia State Fire Commission. (d) Service credit must include five years of service beginning in the year the fund is formally established. Therefore no more than fifteen years of service credit can be awarded to individuals prior to this article. (e) Individual service credit reports must be certified by the department chief and the department board of directors. Service credit reports must be submitted annually to the funding administration. (f) Each recipient must meet required point criteria to receive one-year worth of service credit. The minimum point criteria will be established by the West Virginia State Fireman's Association in conjunction with the West Virginia State Fire Commission. Volunteer firefighters will receive points for duties such as incident response, training at local, county or state level, participation in department fund-raising events, department, county or state meetings, and service as a line or administrative department officer. (g) Only points incurred acting as a volunteer firefighter will be allowed toward annual service credit. No points will be given during any duties for which a person was paid a salary, hourly rate, or flat fee for the service performed. Paid firefighters are only eligible to receive service credit from a volunteer department which is a different department from their paid employment. (h) After completion of twenty years of certified service credit as a volunteer firefighter, the individual will become vested into this benefit. The vested individual can at that point retire from any additional service, but the individual is not eligible to receive any benefit payments from this fund until the individual reaches sixty years of age. §8-15B-5. Administration. (a) The volunteer firefighter's length of service plan will require administration staff to collect and distribute the funds to eligible participants. It is the responsibility of the administration to maintain proper records and documentation of each department and eligible recipient, and that all requirements have been met prior to any distribution of funds. (b) The administration will also monitor and take necessary measures to prevent fraudulent or improper distribution of the fund. This will include audits of information submitted if necessary. (c) The administration will prepare a forecast of eligible recipients by year based on the information submitted annually by the fire departments. The administration can estimate the needed cash flow in the fund for future years based on forecast projections. NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to establish the "West Virginia Volunteer Firefighter Length of Service Act"; and to provide that the State of West Virginia would have to provide for the administration costs during the first five years of the plan, after this time the plan should be self-sufficient to handle any associated administration costs. This article is new; therefore, strike-throughs and underscoring have been omitted. |
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