Dear State Official:
I respectfully request your assistance in correcting a serious injustice that continues to occur within the New York State fire service. I request your support and to vote in favor of Assembly Bill 10836-A and its companion Senate Bill which would provide that Firefighters who die in a line of duty, as determined by the Workers Compensation Board, would have their names inscribed on the New York State Fallen Firefighters Memorial at Empire State Plaza.
Recently, a number of New York State Firefighters who died in the line of duty did not have their names inscribed on the New York State Fallen Firefighters Memorial as a result of an independent committee making its own determination that these deaths were not in the line of duty. In particular, Firefighter Paul R. Brady of the Malverne Volunteer Fire Department on Long Island has been denied four times by this committee, most recently on April 19th, 2010. This committee has made these types of determinations from time to time, citing ever changing selection criteria, which has consistently defied logic and reason.
In the most recent cases here in New York State, firefighter deaths have been determined to be in the line of duty by the New York State Workers Compensation Board under the Volunteer Fireman's Benefit Law; the United States Department of Justice under the Public Safety Officers Benefit Law Program; the New York State Office of Fire Prevention and Control; and the Federal Fallen Firefighters Monument Association, but the New York State Fallen Firefighter Memorial Committee decreed that these names shall not be inscribed on the New York State Fallen Firefighter Memorial.
By enacting this legislation, a body of competent jurisdiction, here the New York State Workers Compensation Board determining that a firefighter’s death is in the line of duty, would mandate that such firefighters name would be engraved on the New York State Fallen Firefighters Memorial. This would serve to remove any adverse discourse, rancor or competitiveness between the various factions of the New York State Fire Service, and appropriately and properly, with dignity, memorialize all of our fallen firefighters who die in the line of duty, on the New York State Fallen Firefighters Memorial.
We look forward to your support and favorable vote on this legislation.
Yours truly,
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