Vice President Cuff opened the meeting on Saturday morning at 9:00 AM with opening remarks.  Vice President Cuff presented Dan Wimer, CEO, DR&W Enterprises, LLC the speaker for the morning.  The topic was Hybrid Vehicle safety.  Mr. Wimer present a very interesting power point program on the dangers of working on MVA’s involving Hybrid vehicles.  He can be contacted at www.DRWENTERPRISES.ORG.  By going to his web site you can obtain information on training (your location, training CD’s with an overview and each Hybrid Vehicle manufactured with training CDs’ and Train the Trainer CD’s).  You will also be shown what tools you should have when working on these vehicles.  Mr. Wimer is a 30-year member of Fairport/Egypt Fire Departments, an Automotive Engineer, and a college instructor on Automotive Technology.  The information he presented should be presented in some form to all first responders (fire service, EMS and Law Enforcement) prior to their attempting to work on any MVA involving a Hybrid Vehicle.  These are the most dangerous vehicles on the road today to work on as a first responder.  They are also bringing out Hybrid busses and Commercial Vehicles.  I would highly recommend that the Training Officers of the Department follow up on this training for the safety of all Department members.

    The afternoon Caucus was held at 3:00 PM and was the combination of the Northern Central Volunteer Firemen’s Association and the Western New York Volunteer Firemen’s Association.  Monroe County and many of the departments within the County are members of both.  The rough draft of the weekend’s agenda from the FASNY Legislative Committee and the Sectional Legislative Committee Chairman was presented.  Each presented item was open for discussion and a vote of all present. 

The First item involved Public Safety:

1.    Hazardous Material Emergency Planning and Response Act – To enact legislation to establish a statewide hazardous material safety program, to provide for the creation of Hazardous Material Emergency Response Accounts in each county, and to establish a system for the reimbursement of cleanup costs associated with the release of hazardous materials by known and unknown parties.  This was submitted in 2001 by Hudson Valley, Central, Hudson-Mohawk, Southern.  On Saturday this proposal was voted to be supported by all present and the same on Sunday with no objections.

The Second group of proposals to be presented had to do with Recurring Budget items.

2.    Post High School Tuition Assistance – To assure adequate and continuous funding for the Volunteer Recruitment Service Scholarship Program in order to increase membership of the volunteer fire departments by continuing to offer a tuition assistance program for post high school education.  This was submitted in 2000 by Southwestern, Western, Central, Northern-Central, Northern and Southern.  The vote on Saturday and also Sunday by all present was to continue to fully support this proposal with no objections.

3.    Low Interest Loan Funding – To assure that adequate and continuous funding for the Emergency Service Low Interest Revolving Loan Program is maintained at the levels required to meet the needs of the fire service by requesting additional funding as needed to meet these needs.  This was submitted in 1994 by Northern, Northern-Central, Southwestern, Western, Central and Southern and had the full support of all that were present on Saturday.  The proposal was reworded for the Sunday Caucus to read:
Low Interest Loan Funding – To assure that adequate and continuous funding for the Emergency Services Low Interest Revolving Loan Program is maintained at the levels required to meet the needs of the fire service by requesting an additional 15 million dollars of funding needed to meet these commitments.  The same Sectional Association is sponsoring this proposal and it was passed by all present on Sunday with no objections.

4.    Fire Code Standard Training – To establish and maintain a dedicated fund sufficient for training programs required for code enforcement.  This was submitted in 1999 by Northern-Central, Hudson Valley, Northern, Western, Central, Southwestern and Southern.  It had the full support of all present on Saturday and Sunday with no objections.

The Third Group of proposals has to do with Firefighters:

5.    Cost of Living Adjustment – To provide a cost of living adjustment to benefits received by permanently-totally disabled volunteer firefighters and ambulance workers.  This was submitted in 2001 by Western, Hudson-Mohawk, Southern and Central.  This proposal generated a great deal of discussion due to the changes in the Workmen’s Compensation laws last year.  It was mentioned that it could cause the reopening of some cases and the possibility of some people loosing their benefits.  For this reason Western and Central withdrew their support and Northern-Central followed suit.  Western and Northern-Central voted to request this be moved to a Study Bill.  When this proposal was presented Sunday in it original form it was voted on by the members present with 196 in favor and 177 opposed. 

6.    Heart Bill – To amend the Volunteer Firefighters’ Benefit Law to make permanent the provision of the heart death and disability law.  This was submitted in 1981 by Southwestern, Western, Northern-Central, Southern, Northern, Central and Hudson-Valley.  This had the full support of all present on both Saturday and Sunday with no objections.

7.    Health Insurance Initiative – To enact legislation relating to lower cost health care coverage for volunteer emergence responders covered by VFBL and VAWBL.  This was submitted in 2004 by Hudson Valley, Hudson-Mohawk, Southwestern, Southern, Central, Western and Northern-Central.  This had the full support of all present on Saturday and Sunday with no objections.

8.    Municipal Deposits for Credit Unions – To amend relevant state laws to allow local governments to deposit public funds in credit unions.  Submitted in 2005 by Hudson Valley, Northern-Central, Central, Hudson-Mohawk and Southern.  This had the full support of all present on Saturday and Sunday with no objections.

9.    Youth on Fire Grounds – To amend the General Municipal Law to allow participants in a volunteer firefighters youth program to be near the scene of an incident in certain limited circumstances.  Submitted in 2004 by Northern-Central and Central.  On Saturday Western voted non-support.  The reason was they were afraid the State Government would put too many rules on the program above and beyond what Scouting already has.  On Sunday when a vote was 283 for and 58 against.

10.    Volunteer Firefighters & EMS Recruitment Fund – To enact legislation to establish the Volunteer Firefighter and Volunteer Emergency Service fund and authorize gifts to such fund through a state income tax check-off to promote programs to entice volunteer recruitment.  Submitted in 2006 by Hudson Valley, Hudson-Mohawk, Northern, Southern, and Northern-Central.  This had the full support of all present on Saturday and Sunday with no objections.

11.    Additional Volunteer Firefighter Recruitment Scholarships – To enact legislation to allow volunteer organizations to submit more than one application for volunteer firefighter recruitment scholarships in accordance with standards set by Higher Education Services Corp.  Submitted in 2006 by Hudson Valley, Hudson-Mohawk, Southwestern, Southern and Central.  This had the full support of all present on Saturday and Sunday with no objections.

The fourth group of proposals has to do with Fiscal items:

12.     Service Award Tax Relief – To amend the tax law to exempt from taxation income received by eligible volunteer firefighters from a Length of Service Award Program (LOSAP).  Submitted in 1999 by Southern, Northern, Hudson-Mohawk and Hudson Valley.  This had the full support of all present on Saturday and Sunday with no objections.

13.    Utility Rate Reduction – To enact legislation to enable volunteer fire and ambulance companies to receive lower utility rates.  Submitted in 2006 by Central, Northern, Hudson-Mohawk, Southwestern, Hudson Valley, Southern and Northern-Central.  This had the full support of all present on Saturday and Sunday with no objections.

14.     Funding for Enforcement of the Uniform Fire Prevention and Building Code – To amend relevant sections of law, including State Finance Law Sec. 54-g, in order to establish a fund dedicated to reimbursement of local governments for code enforcement expenses.  Submitted in 2006 by Hudson Valley, Southwestern, Southern and Central.  This had the full support of all present on Saturday and Sunday with no objections.

15.     Cost Recovery for Fire Department Ambulance Service – To amend the General Municipal Law to authorize fire departments and companies that provide emergency medical services to establish fees and charge for the services.  Submitted in 2005 by Northern Central, Western Southwestern and Northern.  This proposal ended up with a floor vote and passed 180 to 98.

16.     Personal Income Tax Credit Supplement -  To enact legislation to increase the recently passed tax credit by $200.00 per year for the next four years bringing the total tax credit for volunteer firefighters and ambulance personnel to $1000.00.  Submitted in 2006 by Central and Southern. This had the full support of all present on Saturday and Sunday with no objections. On the Draft for Saturday this was proposal # 17 but was moved to #16 for Sunday when the Draft #16 was withdrawn.

17.    Elimination of Exemption from Seat Belt Law – To amend New York law to eliminate the current exemption for emergency vehicles from use of seat belts requirement.  Submitted in 2007 by Southern.  This generated a great deal of discussion on Saturday in that NFPA requires seat belt use but it was pointed out that NFPA is a guideline and not a law.  There was some feeling that we might get law enforcement upset with us if they had to use seat belts if they wanted to or not.  It was pointed out almost all Departments in New York state require seat belt use.  Western and Northern-Central voted no support on Saturday but we were advised to vote our conscience. This passed with very little opposition on Sunday with no need for a floor hand vote.  This was proposal #19 on the Draft on Saturday but moved to #17 on Sunday when Draft #18 was withdrawn.

Proposals numbers 20, 21 and 22 were not on the finished agenda for Sunday.   Number 21 was withdrawn.  I will address these and the other two that were withdrawn at the end of this report.

The fifth group of proposals were Resolutions items.

1.    Non-Resident Membership In Fire Department or Company – Resolved that FASNY investigate the fire service laws that limit non-resident membership of a fire department or company to no more than45% of total membership in order to determine the impact, advantage and disadvantage of the restriction.  Submitted in 2005 by Central and Southern.  Central withdrew support at the Friday night meeting.  This proposal did not meet a great deal of opposition on Saturday and passed Sunday with very little opposition.  There was not enough to call for a hand vote.

2.    Cellular Phone Priority Access – Resolved that FASNY continue to support initiatives that would require cellular telephone service providers to make priority access available to Fire, EMS and the law enforcement organizations.  Submitted in 1993 by Northern-Central, Central, Northern, Southern and Western. This had the full support of all present on Saturday and Sunday with no objections.

The FASNY Board of Directors have requested that the following be added to the 2008 Legislative Agenda:  To amend the VFBL law to provide that in the case of a line of duty death where a benefit is paid to a covered volunteer that the name of that volunteer firefighter shall be inscribed upon the NYS Fallen Firefighter’s Memorial at the Capital Mall in Albany.  This did not require a vote but was passed with a unanimous vote of all-present on Saturday and Sunday.

There were three proposals withdrawn prior to our meeting on Saturday with no explanation and two that were discussed and voted on Saturday that were not on the final agenda for Sunday.  I will list these proposals below and mark the proposals that we were told were withdrawn.

DRAFT PROPOSALS

16.    Bingo Worker Age Limit – To amend the General Municipal Law to lower the minimum age to assist in the conduct of bingo from eighteen to sixteen.  Submitted in 2002 by Northern-Central and withdrawn prior to Saturday’s meeting.

18.    Tag Day” Fundraising – To enact legislation that would allow volunteer fire departments to conduct “coin drop” or “boot drop” fundraising events on state highways in a safe manner.  Submitted in 2006 by Hudson Valley and withdrawn prior to Saturday’s meeting.

20.    VFBL and VAWBL Coverage for Non-Jurisdictional Response – To amend VFBL and VAWBL to provide for coverage in instances where an intervention is located outside his or her jurisdiction or area of responsibility.  Submitted in 2007 by Hudson Valley and supported on Saturday by Western and Northern-Central but was not on the final agenda on Sunday.

21.     Safety Ropes and System Components – To amend the safety ropes and system components law of 2007 to delay implementation until June 1, 2009.  This was withdrawn prior to Saturday’s meeting.

22.     Cancer Impairment – To extend the section of the volunteer firefighters’ benefit law that creates a presumption of evidence that diseases of the lung which is a result in total or partial disability or death were caused by the individual’s exposure while in the line of duty.  Submitted in 2007 by Central and not on the final agenda on Sunday.

This is the final report on the 2007 FASNY Legislative Conference.  If there are any questions please contact me and I will get the answer.

Respectfully submitted,

Alan C. Way