There shall be continued in and for the City
of Albany a Firemen's Pension Fund, which consists of:
A. All securities, property and moneys which, upon the
passage of this article, are in the possession of the City Comptroller,
belonging to the fund for the relief of disabled firemen of the City
of Albany.
B. All fines, penalties and forfeitures that, from time
to time, may hereafter be imposed upon and collected from any officer,
member or other employee of the Fire Department of the City, by way
of discipline, collectible from pay or salary and all compensation
or salary that may be deducted or withheld from any officer or member
or other employee for or on account of absence from duty.
C. All rewards in money, fees, gifts, testimonials and
emoluments that may be given or paid because of extraordinary services
rendered by an officer, member or other employee of such Fire Department.
D. Such proportions of all revenues derived by said City
from fees for licenses and permits for the sale of oil, fireworks
or combustibles as the Common Council shall determine by ordinance,
also all fines or revenues derived from the extinguishing of chimney
fires pursuant to law or ordinance of the Common Council.
E. Pursuant to the authority granted by § 113,
Subdivision c, as amended, of the Retirement and Social Security Law
of the State of New York, the City of Albany, as a portion of its
plan for increased take-home pay for members of pension or retirement
systems administered by the City, does hereby provide that it will
make contributions, in an amount not to exceed 3 1/2% of the annual
salaries of its officers and employees who are such members, for the
benefit of such member officers and employees of the City of Albany.
F. All moneys which may be hereafter received or collected
from the tax on foreign insurance companies, or agents thereof, doing
business in the City of Albany, except the amount thereof payable
to the Firemen's Association of the State of New York.
[Amended 12-19-1988 by L.L. No. 2-1989]
A. In case the revenue received from the sources mentioned in §
42-60 of this article is insufficient to meet the demands upon the pension fund pursuant to the provisions of this article, the Common Council of the City of Albany shall, with the approval of the Board of Estimate and Apportionment, appropriate each year such sum or sums as may be necessary to meet such deficiency, and the same shall be payable out of any moneys in the City treasury derived from any source other than by municipal tax or placed in the annual tax budget and raised in the same manner as other moneys provided for in such budget.
B. In the case the revenues received from the tax on
foreign fire insurance companies exceed the demands upon the pension
fund, the Board of Trustees shall be authorized to pay over said excess
funds to the Comptroller in his capacity as Treasurer of the Fire
Department, to be used for use and benefit of the Fire Department,
pursuant to the provisions of the Insurance Law of the State of New
York.
[Amended 12-2-1985 by L.L. No. 2-1986]
The Mayor, Comptroller and Chief of Fire of
the City of Albany and their successors in office are hereby constituted
the Board of Trustees, who shall have the control, management and
distribution of the funds provided for in this article. One of the
Trustees shall be elected President, and the Comptroller shall be
ex officio Treasurer of the Board and custodian of such funds. The
Treasurer of the Board of Trustees is hereby declared to be the Treasurer
of the Fire Department of the City of Albany for the purpose of receiving
and collecting the taxes on foreign insurance companies or agents
within the scope and meaning of § 133 of the Insurance Law. The Board of Trustees is hereby authorized to adopt rules
and regulations for its government. It shall determine all applications
for pensions according to the provisions of this article and shall
cause to be kept a full and complete record of all its proceedings
and meetings and shall report in detail to the Common Council annually
the condition and disposition of such funds and the items of receipts
and disbursements in connection with the same, which shall be printed
in the annual report of the City Comptroller, and the granting and
allowing of any pension except as herein after set forth shall constitute
a breach of trust on the part of the Trustee voting for the same;
and actions at law to recover such pension illegally paid may be brought
and maintained against the bond of the Treasurer and such delinquent
Trustees and their estates and the person to whom the same may be
paid by the City of Albany.
[Amended 12-2-1985 by L.L. No. 2-1986]
A. The Chief of Fire shall have power to retire from
all service in the Fire Department any officer, member or other employee
thereof who may be found, on examination by the physician of the Department,
disqualified, physically or mentally, for the performance of his duties,
in the Department by reason of age, long service or disability caused
or induced by the actual performance of the duties of his position,
without fault or misconduct on his part; and the officer, member or
other employee so retired from service shall receive from the Firemen's
Pension Fund an annual allowance as a pension, in case of total disqualification,
of one-half (1/2) the salary paid him at the time he was retired.
After the death of such officer, member or employee who had retired
as aforesaid by reason of disability caused or induced by the actual
performance of the duties of his position without fault or misconduct
on his part or where the deceased officer, member or employee who
had been retired in accordance with this article and upon retirement
had served 20 years continuously as an officer, member or employee,
there shall be paid to his wife surviving him an annual allowance
as a pension of 60% of the pension paid him at the time of his death;
and said payment shall continue during her natural life or until she
remarries.
B. Every officer, member or other employee of the Department
who may become permanently incapacitated from performing full duty
as a fireman by reason of age, disease or disability caused or induced
by injury or by long service and exposure while in the line of his
service as a fireman, without fault or misconduct on his part, may,
on his own application, be retired from service, by the Chief of Fire,
provided that the applicant has served in the Department at least
10 years continuously and has been examined by the physician of the
Department and his certificate filed showing that the applicant is
permanently disabled from performing the duties of a fireman, in which
case he shall receive from the pension fund an annual pension equal
to one-half (1/2) of his salary at the time of retirement. After the
death of such member, officer or employee who had been retired as
aforesaid by reason of disability caused or induced by injury, while
in the line of his service as a fireman, there shall be paid to his
wife surviving him an annual allowance as a pension of 60% of the
pension paid him at the time of his death; and said payment shall
continue during her natural life or until she remarries.
C. Every officer, or member or other employee of the
Fire Department, who has served as such for 25 or more years continuously
and shall have arrived at the age of 50 years, shall, upon his own
application, be retired without such physical examination and certificate.
(1) An annual pension shall be granted and paid each person
so retired from the Firemen's Pension Fund of one-half (1/2) the annual
compensation allowed him as a salary at the date of his retirement
from the service, and such pension shall be for the natural life of
the pensioner.
(2) After the death of such officer, member or other employee,
who had so retired as aforesaid upon his own application, there shall
be paid to his wife surviving him an annual allowance as a pension
of 60% of the pension paid him at the time of his death, and said
payment shall continue during her natural life or until she remarries.
D. In case an officer or member of the Fire Department
shall be killed in the actual performance of duty or shall have died
within one year from the effects of any injury received while in the
actual discharge of such duty, there shall be paid by the Board of
Trustees of the pension fund to the wife surviving, during her natural
life or until she remarries, one-half (1/2) of the salary which such
officer or member was receiving at the time of his death or fatal
injury; and if there is no widow, or if there is a widow and she remarries,
the Board of Trustees shall pay from the pension fund to the child
or children under the age of 18 years one-half (1/2) of the salary
which said officer or member was receiving at the time of his death
or fatal injury and, if there is more than one child, share and share
alike in such one-half (1/2) salary. The pension or allowance in the
case of a child or children shall cease when such child, if there
is one, attains the age of 18 years; and, if there is more than one,
as each child attains the age of 18 years, his share shall cease and
shall be paid to the other child or children under 18 years of age.
E. To the surviving wife of any officer or member of
the Fire Department, who shall not otherwise qualify under the provisions
of this section, there shall be paid an annual allowance as a pension
of 60% of the pension paid him at the time of his death or that would
have been paid him if he had been retired on the date of his death,
for the period of her natural life or until she remarries, provided
that such officer or member shall have been a member of the Fire Department
of the City of Albany continuously since May 31, 1940, and provided
further that he was not a member of New York State Employees Retirement
System.
F. The provisions for payment to the surviving wife as set forth herein in Subsections
A,
B,
C and
E of this section shall not be made if the surviving wife shall be otherwise entitled to benefits under any state law which may provide for the payment of benefits by the City to such surviving wife.
G. In the event that a fireman has served as a member
of the Fire Department for his minimum period and continues in service,
upon his subsequent retirement for any cause whatsoever, there shall
be added to the amount of the annual pension or retirement allowance
to which he was entitled upon such retirement an additional amount
computed at the rate of one-sixtieth (1/60) of his final compensation
for each year of such additional service. His final compensation shall
be computed to be the average of the last three years of salary or
the highest average salary earned during any three consecutive years
from the date of his minimum period to the date of his retirement.
H. The provisions of Subsection
G above shall not be made in addition to additional retirement benefits provided under any state law except to the extent that said state benefit is less than the benefit herein provided. This additional benefit set forth herein is intended to be in lieu of any lesser amount prescribed by any state law and, in particular, by § 207-d of the General Municipal Law of the State of New York.
This article shall apply to all who are now
officers or members of the Fire Department, but none of the provisions
of this article or any amending state or local law shall apply to
any member appointed on or after June 1, 1940, but in place and instead
of membership in said Firemen's Pension Fund of the City of Albany,
New York, such appointee or appointees shall be entitled to membership
in the New York State Employees Retirement System and entitled to
all of the pensions, retirement benefits, emoluments or awards as
are provided for in Chapter 741, Article 4, of the Laws of 1920, and
Chapter 591, Article 5, of the Laws of 1922, as the same have from
time to time been amended and renumbered. The City of Albany, New
York, hereby gives its consent and approval to such membership and/or
memberships in the New York State Employees Retirement System of all
members of such Albany Fire Department who shall be appointed on and
after June 1, 1940.
The article shall be known as "Local Law No.
2 of 1940" and is intended to change and supersede Subdivision 5 of
Sections 1, 4 and 5 of Chapter 285 of the Laws of 1914, as amended
by Chapter 677 of the Laws of 1926, as amended by Local Law No. 5
of the year 1936, and to add two new sections thereto numbered 15
and 16.