The Office of the State Comptroller recently released the latest LOSAP audit – this time the audit was of the Jamesport Fire District. You can download a copy at the end of this post.
There are several things to react to here, which we will do in some later posts. But off the top, the following are interesting:
Training Courses – the report indicates one point is awarded per hour (there are additional stipulations). The internal Fire District policy required that the training course be a minimum of one hour (not the statute). But in this case, members were being credited points for training courses that lasted less than one hour. The report doesn’t indicate if the State’s formal opinion is that training should be a minimum of one hour to receive a point, but the implication is certainly there and is something to be aware of.
Drills – the report criticizes the District for granting two points for drills that last four hours. On the surface, the literal text of the statute does state that only one point is awarded for a drill, and a drill must last a minimum of two hours. Therefore in theory a drill that lasts three or four hours is still just one drill and therefore one point. Similar to calls – some calls are 5 minutes, some are 5 hours – but the same credit is awarded for both (response credit that goes towards earning the points in that category). If your department is participating in drills that last four hours, the alternative may be to split the drill into two, two-hour parts, thereby making it two separate drills.
Officers – the report criticizes the District for granting 10 points to former chiefs. The report indicates that a former chief does not meet the definition of an elected or appointed position in the statute. This is something I have argued with clients in the past. But in some departments, the ex-chief actually has responsibility at a fire scene, and so therefore could fall under “line officer”. So it would be important to make clear if a former chief has a responsibility or if it is just a “social” title.
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