Terms Used In New York Laws > General Municipal > Article 11-A - Service Award Programs

• Active volunteer firefighter: means a person who has been approved by the authorities in control of a duly organized volunteer fire company or volunteer fire department as an active volunteer firefighter of such fire company or department and who is faithfully and actually performing service in the protection of life and property from fire or other emergency, accident or calamity in connection with which the services of such fire company or fire department are required. See N.Y. General Municipal Law 215
• Administrative service agency: means an organization duly authorized to do business in the state and which is qualified to administer and maintain records and accounts of plans which meet the requirements for qualification under the internal revenue code and governmental plans. See N.Y. General Municipal Law 215
• Allegation: something that someone says happened.
• Amendment: A proposal to alter the text of a pending bill or other measure by striking out some of it, by inserting new language, or both. Before an amendment becomes part of the measure, thelegislature must agree to it.
• Annuity: A periodic (usually annual) payment of a fixed sum of money for either the life of the recipient or for a fixed number of years. A series of payments under a contract from an insurance company, a trust company, or an individual. Annuity payments are made at regular intervals over a period of more than one full year.
• Answer: The formal written statement by a defendant responding to a civil complaint and setting forth the grounds for defense.
• Appeal: A request made after a trial, asking another court (usually the court of appeals) to decide whether the trial was conducted properly. To make such a request is "to appeal" or "to take an appeal." One who appeals is called the appellant.
• Appropriation: The provision of funds, through an annual appropriations act or a permanent law, for federal agencies to make payments out of the Treasury for specified purposes. The formal federal spending process consists of two sequential steps: authorization
• Assets: (1) The property comprising the estate of a deceased person, or (2) the property in a trust account.
• Attachment: A procedure by which a person's property is seized to pay judgments levied by the court.
• Beneficiary: A person who is entitled to receive the benefits or proceeds of a will, trust, insurance policy, retirement plan, annuity, or other contract. ^{Source: OCC}
• Complaint: A written statement by the plaintiff stating the wrongs allegedly committed by the defendant.
• Comptroller: means the comptroller of the county. See N.Y. Public Authorities Law 3951
• Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
• Corporation: A legal entity owned by the holders of shares of stock that have been issued, and that can own, receive, and transfer property, and carry on business in its own name.
• costs: means costs to finance (a) amounts necessary to finance a portion of the operating costs of the county or any covered organization as provided in sections thirty-nine hundred fifty-six and section thirty-nine hundred fifty-seven of this title, to the extent approved by the authority, (b) amounts necessary to accomplish a refunding, repayment or restructuring of all or a portion of the county's outstanding indebtedness or that of any covered organization, (c) cash flow needs of the county or any covered organization, (d) any object or purpose of the county or any covered organization, for which a period of probable usefulness is prescribed in § 11. See N.Y. Public Authorities Law 3951
• Counterclaim: A claim that a defendant makes against a plaintiff.
• County: means Erie county. See N.Y. Public Authorities Law 3951
• County tax revenues: means net collections set aside for county purposes pursuant to subdivision (a) of § 1262 of the tax law, from the county's sales and compensating use taxes imposed pursuant to the authority of subpart B of part one of Article 29 of the tax law. See N.Y. Public Authorities Law 3951
• Covered organization: means any governmental agency, public authority or public benefit corporation which receives or may receive moneys directly, indirectly or contingently from the county, but excluding the authority and (a) any other governmental agency, public authority or public benefit corporation specifically exempted from the provisions of this title by order of the authority upon application of such agency, public authority, or corporation to the authority or on the authority's own motion upon a finding by the authority that such exemption does not materially affect the ability of the county to adopt and maintain a budget pursuant to the provisions of this title, or (b) any state public authority defined in § 201 of the civil service law, unless specifically named above; provided, however, no municipality or school district shall be treated as a covered organization solely because it shares sales and compensating use tax revenue with the county, provided further, that the authority may terminate any exemption granted by order of the authority pursuant to this subdivision upon a determination that the circumstances upon which such exemption was granted are no longer applicable. See N.Y. Public Authorities Law 3951
• Damages: Money paid by defendants to successful plaintiffs in civil cases to compensate the plaintiffs for their injuries.
• Deed: The legal instrument used to transfer title in real property from one person to another.
• Defined benefit plan: means any service award program that provides to eligible volunteer firefighters, a benefit that is definitely determinable under the program without reference to the amount contributed to the program on the participant's behalf or to any income, expenses, gains or losses or forfeitures of other participants under the program. See N.Y. General Municipal Law 215
• Defined contribution plan: means any service award program that provides to eligible volunteer firefighters a benefit as the result of definite and determinable contributions under the program, and without reference to any income, expense, gains or losses or forfeitures of other participants under the program. See N.Y. General Municipal Law 215
• Elected or appointed position: means line officers, department or company officers and president, vice president, treasurer and secretary of a fire company or department. See N.Y. General Municipal Law 215
• Entitlement: A Federal program or provision of law that requires payments to any person or unit of government that meets the eligibility criteria established by law. Entitlements constitute a binding obligation on the part of the Federal Government, and eligible recipients have legal recourse if the obligation is not fulfilled. Social Security and veterans' compensation and pensions are examples of entitlement programs.
• Entitlement age: means the age designated by the sponsor at which a program participant is entitled to begin receiving an unreduced service award. See N.Y. General Municipal Law 215
• Fiduciary: means any person who exercises discretionary authority or control with respect to the administration of the program or the management or disposition of program assets or who renders investment advice for a fee to the program. See N.Y. General Municipal Law 215
• Fiduciary: A trustee, executor, or administrator.
• Financial organization: means an organization duly authorized to do business in the state and which is (i) registered as an investment adviser under the Investment Advisers Act of 1940, as such provisions may be amended from time to time; (ii) licensed or chartered by the state department of financial services; (iii) chartered by an agency of the federal government; or (iv) subject to the jurisdiction and regulation of the securities and exchange commission of the federal government. See N.Y. General Municipal Law 215
• Fire service area: means a portion of a village that receives fire protection from a special fire department pursuant to a contract with the governing board of the village when the cost of the contract is charged to such area of the village. See N.Y. General Municipal Law 215
• Fiscal year: The fiscal year is the accounting period for the government. For the federal government, this begins on October 1 and ends on September 30. The fiscal year is designated by the calendar year in which it ends; for example, fiscal year 2006 begins on October 1, 2005 and ends on September 30, 2006.
• Indemnification: In general, a collateral contract or assurance under which one person agrees to secure another person against either anticipated financial losses or potential adverse legal consequences. ^{Source: FDIC}
• Interest rate: The amount paid by a borrower to a lender in exchange for the use of the lender's money for a certain period of time. Interest is paid on loans or on debt instruments, such as notes or bonds, either at regular intervals or as part of a lump sum payment when the issue matures. ^{Source: OCC}
• Jurisdiction: (1) The legal authority of a court to hear and decide a case. Concurrent jurisdiction exists when two courts have simultaneous responsibility for the same case. (2) The geographic area over which the court has authority to decide cases.
• Legislature: means the legislature of the county. See N.Y. Public Authorities Law 3951
• Liabilities: The aggregate of all debts and other legal obligations of a particular person or legal entity.
• Lien: A claim against real or personal property in satisfaction of a debt.
• Litigation: A case, controversy, or lawsuit. Participants (plaintiffs and defendants) in lawsuits are called litigants.
• Nonforfeitable: means the unconditional and legally enforceable right to receive benefits attributable to service as an active volunteer firefighter under the program that will begin at the entitlement age specified in the program. See N.Y. General Municipal Law 215
• Oath: A promise to tell the truth.
• Obligation: An order placed, contract awarded, service received, or similar transaction during a given period that will require payments during the same or a future period.
• Participant: means an active volunteer firefighter who is eligible for a benefit under a service award program. See N.Y. General Municipal Law 215
• Personal property: All property that is not real property.
• Political subdivision: means a county, city, town, town on behalf of a fire protection district, village, village on behalf of fire service area or fire district. See N.Y. General Municipal Law 215
• program: means a defined benefit plan or defined contribution plan established or maintained under this article to provide service awards for active volunteer firefighters, pursuant to the benefit options specified by the sponsoring organization. See N.Y. General Municipal Law 215
• Ranking minority member: The highest ranking (and usually longest serving) minority member of a committee or subcommittee.
• Real property: Land, and all immovable fixtures erected on, growing on, or affixed to the land.
• Remainder: An interest in property that takes effect in the future at a specified time or after the occurrence of some event, such as the death of a life tenant.
• Revenues: means revenues of the authority consisting of county tax revenues, state aid revenues, and all other aid, rents, fees, charges, payments and other income and receipts paid or payable to the authority or a trustee for the account of the authority to the extent such amounts are pledged to bondholders. See N.Y. Public Authorities Law 3951
• Service award: means the benefit payable to a participant in a service award program. See N.Y. General Municipal Law 215
• Settlement: Parties to a lawsuit resolve their difference without having a trial. Settlements often involve the payment of compensation by one party in satisfaction of the other party's claims.
• Special fire company or department: means a fire company or department for which a service award program cannot be established pursuant to subdivision one or two of section two hundred sixteen of this article which provides fire protection services to two or more political subdivisions under contracts with the governing boards thereof. See N.Y. General Municipal Law 215
• sponsoring organization: means a political subdivision which has established or jointly established a service award program, a volunteer fire company or department, or any other entity responsible for fire protection. See N.Y. General Municipal Law 215
• State: means the state of New York. See N.Y. Public Authorities Law 3951
• State aid: means aid and incentives for municipalities, any successor type of aid and any new aid appropriated by the state as local government assistance for the benefit of the county. See N.Y. Public Authorities Law 3951
• State aid revenues: means state aid paid by the state comptroller to the authority pursuant to this title. See N.Y. Public Authorities Law 3951
• State comptroller: means the comptroller of the state. See N.Y. Public Authorities Law 3951
• Tort: A civil wrong or breach of a duty to another person, as outlined by law. A very common tort is negligent operation of a motor vehicle that results in property damage and personal injury in an automobile accident.
• Trust account: A general term that covers all types of accounts in a trust department, such as estates, guardianships, and agencies. ^{Source: OCC}
• Trustee: A person or institution holding and administering property in trust.
• Uniform Commercial Code: A set of statutes enacted by the various states to provide consistency among the states' commercial laws. It includes negotiable instruments, sales, stock transfers, trust and warehouse receipts, and bills of lading. ^{Source: OCC}
• Venue: The geographical location in which a case is tried.
• Year of firefighting service: means a twelve month period during which an active volunteer firefighter participates in the fire service and satisfies the minimum requirements of participation established by the sponsoring organization maintaining the program which shall be applied on a consistent and uniform basis, subject to the minimum standards established by the sponsoring organization. See N.Y. General Municipal Law 215