E.M.S. Incentive on Sag Harbor's Ballot Tuesday
An election will be held on Tuesday in Sag Harbor Village with Robby Stein and James L. Larocca running unopposed for the village board. While there is no competition for their seats, there is a lot at stake for the Sag Harbor Volunteer Ambulance Corps, which is looking to increase its pension-like incentive program.
“It’s a recruitment and retention tool we can use,” said Eddie Downes, a former president of the ambulance corps who helped fight for the increase to the length of service award. While one already exists for the corps, it is not on par with what is available to the Sag Harbor Fire Department membership. “We can hang on to people. They have a bigger incentive to stay and to volunteer,” he said.
A length of service award program, known as LOSAP, works like a pension, in which volunteers receive a financial incentive based on the number of years they have served. It is a state-approved benefit administered by the state comptroller’s office for volunteers once they hit retirement age. In Sag Harbor, when volunteers turn 65 and retire from volunteering, they are awarded a cash settlement for each year of service in which they have met a minimum standard of answering calls, attending meetings and drills, and so on.
The ambulance corps’s program does not provide the same benefits that are offered to members of the Fire Department, a separate agency. The existing plan is a defined contribution plan, while the proposal is a defined benefit plan. The change may seem subtle, but the difference is not.
Under the proposal, volunteers would receive at the age of 65 an amount equal to $20 per month for each year of service credit earned under the point system, according to Beth Kamper, the village clerk-administrator. A participant who earns five years of service credit will be paid $100 per month for the rest of their lives beginning at age 65.
Under the current program, a participating volunteer receives a $700 contribution into an I.R.A.-type account that is adjusted annually for investment income gained or lost, as well as administration fees, Ms. Kamper said.
The plan does not come without a cost to taxpayers, both inside and outside the village, as the village’s ambulance corps and Fire Department provide service to those living beyond the village boundaries. The village board budgeted $12,000 for the existing plan in 2016-17. Estimates show the new plan would cost $105,000 for 2017, which includes a $3,500 administration fee. If approved, the new program would go into effect on Jan. 1.
Also included in that amount is an unfunded liability of $44,000 because the proposal is retroactive to when the first LOSAP program was begun, in 1997. Those who are still going out on calls and were active before that time are eligible to receive up to five years of credit for service earned during the years immediately preceding 1997. The total unfunded liability of $205,000 would be spread out over a five-year period through 2021.
Stacy McGowin, the president of the ambulance corps, said that the proposal, which had the membership’s support, is what’s best for them and will ensure they are treated fairly. “So please, if you are a village resident, go out and vote for our ambulance volunteers,” she said.
Mr. Larocca’s and Mr. Stein’s names will also be on the ballot. This is Mr. Larocca’s first village election, having been appointed to fill a vacancy last year. Mr. Stein, a clinical child psychologist with a practice in the village, is seeking his third full term on the board.
Mr. Larocca, a lawyer, served as Gov. Hugh Carey’s deputy secretary of federal affairs in Washington, D.C., and under Gov. Mario Cuomo he was commissioner of transportation. He ran for the Democratic Party’s nomination for governor in 1998, before becoming a dean at Southampton College. Retired, he has said he dabbles in playwriting.
The vote will be held at the Sag Harbor Firehouse on Brick Kiln Road from noon to 9 p.m.