Commencing as of January 1, 2022, the City of Somers Point shall make payments to qualified firefighters from the recognized fire companies who respond to fire calls. The enactment of this article recognizes that payments for fire call responses are being made in lieu of the any clothing allowance previously allowed pursuant to ordinance. No clothing allowance shall be made for service by a firefighter subsequent to December 31, 2021. The payments made herein are subject to the obligations of the City of Somers Point and the City's Fire Department as set forth in Article
V, and shall be referred to as "pay-to-run" payments.
The City's obligations under this article are as follows:
A. Subject to sufficient funds being budgeted by City Council, the Administrator
shall annually budget certain monies be used to recompense qualified
firefighters for time expended and costs incurred in connection with
their responding to calls from either of the two recognized fire companies
of the City of Somers Point.
B. The budgeted monetary amount for a calendar year shall be maximum
dollar amount which the City shall be required to pay out to qualified
firefighters for runs in that given year. Upon the depletion of said
funds, the City shall have no further obligation of payment to any
qualified firefighter under this article.
C. By January 30 of each calendar year, the City shall provide each
of the recognized Fire Companies the amount which will be paid for
each run by a qualified firefighter. The amount to be paid per run
each year shall be determined by City Council by way of resolution.
D. To the extent that any qualified firefighter who may be employed
by the City responds to a call during the hours of his/her employment,
said firefighter shall not be paid under this article for any such
run.
E. The allotted monies for each qualified firefighter based on their
response to fire calls shall be paid to that firefighter on no more
than a quarterly basis.
F. Nothing contained in Article
V shall be construed to create an employment relationship with any firefighter who receives funding under this article.
The obligations of the City's Fire Department and its recognized
Fire Companies relative to its firefighters receipt of compensation
and reimbursement under the City's the pay-to-run program are
as follows:
A. Within 14 days of enactment of this article, and by January 10 each
year thereafter, each of the City's recognized fire companies
shall provide to the Administrator:
(1) Its companies agreed-upon guidelines, rules and regulations which
it is using to determine when a fire fighter qualifies to be compensated
by the City of Somers Point in connection with responding to fire
calls ("qualified firefighter"); and
(2) The methodology that each recognized fire company will use in order
to keep track of the response to fire calls for each of its qualified
firefighters.
B. On a monthly basis, the Chief of each recognized fire company shall
submit a voucher to the City Administrator which shall contains its
recordkeeping for payment earned by its firefighters. Should there
be insufficient monies left in the City's budget to meet a monthly
amount due, same shall be provided to all of the City's firefighters
on a pro rata basis.