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2005 California Government Code Sections 50957-50963 Qualifications Review Commission
GOVERNMENT CODESECTION 50957-50963
50957. Only members may accumulate service credit in the award system. A volunteer becomes a member upon completion of one year of current service as certified by a qualifications review commission. Membership shall terminate on the day prior to the effective date of an award pursuant to Section 50962. 50958. (a) The award system shall be funded by contributions paid by contracting departments and income from the fund. The award system is a noncontributory system, and no contributions shall be required from its members. (b) As determined by actuarial valuation reported to the contracting department by the award system, each contracting department shall make contributions annually, not later than October 1 of each year, sufficient to meet the prescribed amount with respect to its volunteers, in accordance with the conditions provided in its contract under the award system. Contributions of all contracting departments shall be applied by the board during each fiscal year to meet the obligations of all departments collectively, as follows: first, in an amount equal to the liabilities accruing on account of awards payable on account of current service; and second, the balance of such contributions on any other liability incurred under this chapter. 50959. (a) Only those volunteers who have been certified by their contracting department as having satisfactorily completed a service year shall be credited with current service for that year. A member is not required to qualify in consecutive years. (b) Members of departments contracting on or after January 1, 1988, may initially be credited with a full service year if they have been active members of the contracting department for at least six months of the service year of the contract operative date and are certified by the department's qualifications review commission. (c) A satisfactory service year credit shall be determined by a member's active participation in all of the following fire department activities. (1) Training drills. (2) Responses to emergency calls. (3) Attendance at official department and association meetings. (d) Contracting departments shall maintain adequate records to show that a credited member was a participating member of the department during the year of certification. The records may include, but are not limited to, the following: (1) Department run logs. (2) Department training records. (3) Certificates of training. (4) Records of exposures to hazardous products. (5) Minutes of departmental or association meetings. 50959.5. The State Board of Fire Services may audit and review the department records necessary to ensure that credited individuals have actively participated in department activities as required by Section 50959. 50961. (a) The governing body of each contracting department shall establish a qualifications review commission which shall include the fire chief, one member of the governing body appointed by the governing body, and one volunteer elected by the volunteers employed by the contracting department. (b) The qualifications review commission shall review the list of department members each year, and prior to October 1 of each year shall certify to the board those volunteers who have qualified. (c) In no event shall any member be credited with more than 20 years of service. (d) With respect to each contracting department which provides benefits for prior service credit, the qualifications review commission shall promulgate and publish guidelines for computing prior service credit. The guidelines shall require the prior service credit to be verified and certified and, in the event that there are no records in existence, the members of the commission and the volunteer shall sign an affidavit certifying that the prior service met the criteria prescribed in Section 50959. The affidavit shall be signed under penalty of perjury. Thereafter, the qualifications review commission shall certify to the board certified prior service credit which has been earned by each member. 50962. Upon a member's application to the board, an award shall be granted to accrue prospectively only if the member has attained age 60 and is credited with a minimum of 10 years of service. An award shall be effective and shall begin to accrue no earlier than the first of the month next following the month in which (a) the member reaches age 60, or (b) the application is received by the board in its Sacramento office, whichever is the later. 50963. (a) Upon attaining 60 years of age, a member may, subject to the annual approval of the district governing board, choose either of the following options: (1) He or she may continue service with the volunteer department, accruing length of service award credit of up to the maximum of 20 years before applying for the award. (2) He or she may apply for the award once the minimum 10 years of length of service award credit has been accrued, and continue service with the volunteer department without accruing additional length of service award credit. (b) An award shall not begin to accrue unless and until an appropriate application therefor has been received by the board in its Sacramento office, and shall begin to accrue and become payable on the first day of the month following the receipt of the application. (c) This section may be made applicable to a district only during the periods of time that the district governing board finds that there are retention and recruitment problems in the district.
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