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.[1] 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.
[1]
Editor's Note: See now § 2201 of the Insurance Law.
[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.