§ 219-s. Participation and service credit. 1. A participant must be
eligible to participate in a supplemental award program provided under
this article if the participant has reached entitlement age and has
completed at least one decade of service in the timeframe designated by
the sponsor.

2. A decade of service shall be credited under a supplemental award
program for each calendar year in the timeframe designated by the
sponsor.

3. In order to provide credit each sponsor shall review its prior
membership rosters to determine the number of decades of credit for each
participant who is entitled to credit. In making this analysis, the
standards for active service set forth in subdivision (c) of section two
hundred seventeen or subdivision three of section two hundred nineteen-m
of this chapter and adopted by the sponsor shall be used. Approval for
such prior service shall require certification by the president,
secretary and chief of the volunteer fire company.

4. In computing credit for those participants who also serve as paid
employees within a political subdivision of the state, credit shall not
be given for activities performed during the individual's regularly
assigned work periods.

5. Sponsors may provide credit to participants whose service was
interrupted by full-time extended obligatory military service or by a
single voluntary enlistment not to exceed four years in the armed forces
of the United States.

6. The president, secretary and chief or comparable officers of each
volunteer company shall submit to the governing board of the sponsor a
list of all participants, certified under oath, which shall identify
those participants who have qualified for credit under the award program
for the previous year. Such list shall be submitted annually by March
thirty-first or otherwise as provided by local resolution and shall be
accompanied by such membership records as the governing board may
require to substantiate the accuracy of the list. Notwithstanding the
provision of this subdivision a participant may request that his or her
name be deleted from said list as a "participant." Such request for
deletion shall be in writing and shall remain effective until withdrawn
in the same manner.

7. The governing board of the sponsor shall review the list and may
delete the name of any person whose point accumulation has not been
adequately documented. Thereafter, the governing board shall approve the
list and return a copy of the list to the appropriate company and
forward a certified copy of the approved list to the program
administrator.

8. Upon receipt of the approved list the company shall post the list
at its principal headquarters for at least thirty days. A participant
whose name does not appear on the approved list shall have the right to
appeal within thirty days of posting of the list. The appeal shall be in
writing and mailed to the clerk or secretary of the governing board of
the sponsor, which shall investigate the appeal. The decision of the
governing board shall be subject to judicial review pursuant to article
seventy-eight of the civil practice law and rules.