Public vote approves Lawrence-Cedarhurst's revised service program

The revised Length of Service Award Program for the Lawrence-Cedarhurst Fire Department was approved 51-0 after the public voted on Monday.

The amended LCFD program will now permit active firefighters 65 and older to continue to accrue service points and receive an increase in the amount of the monetary benefit they receive. Lawrence-Cedarhurst revised the program to ensure compliance with federal anti-age-discrimination law. The change will become effective retroactively to Jan. 1, 2011.

A dozen firefighters are currently eligible to be included in the revised plan. Annual payments to the eligible firefighters will range from $1,400 to $2,650. It is expected to cost the residents of Lawrence and Cedarhurst, the North Lawrence Fire District and East Lawrence approximately $22,000 per year. Lawrence is anticipated to pay $11,814 and Cedarhurst $6,500 per year.

“It is good for the fire department and it is good for the community to keep all the resources we have,” said LCFD Chief Joseph Sperber. “These are experienced, dedicated people that bring a lot of knowledge to the table and that benefits the community.”

The service award program was created by the state in 1988 as a retention and recruitment incentive for volunteer firefighters and ambulance squad members. It pays a pension-like monetary benefit to eligible members who have met the required criteria based on years of service, the number of meetings and drills they attend and the training they undergo. State law requires a public vote to approve a proposed revision to the program.

“The benefit is that we keep quality people,” said Lawrence trustee Michael Fragin, who is the village’s liaison to the fire department.

Continuing active members would receive a one-time payment at age 66, in addition to their monthly payments. The monthly payments would increase if firefighters remain active and continue to accumulate service points. Joseph Sperber, chief of the department, said it is always a challenge to recruit and retain volunteers. During what Sperber called the indoctrination period, new members go through rigorous training to learn about and understand the various emergency situations they will encounter.

A volunteer firefighter in Centerport who was over 65 and still accumulating length-of-service credits, but not receiving additional money for his active duty, won an age-discrimination lawsuit in 1990.

Compliance with the federal Age Discrimination in Employment Act has been required in New York state since then. Joe Schettino, the LCFD’s attorney, said that a special law had to be written in the mid-1990s to include the Lawrence-Cedarhurst department in the service award program because it is a nonprofit, contracted department, not a taxpayer-supported fire district.

The Age Discrimination in Employment Act prohibits employers from discriminating against employees who are 40 or older. It protects them in every phase of the employment process, including job postings, interviews, hiring, training, compensation, job evaluation, promotion, discipline, demotion and termination.

“This puts them on pare with other firefighters in the state,” said Cedarhurst Deputy Mayor Benjamin Weinstock.