State Auditor's Working Group (January 2023 Meeting)

The Volunteer Fire Relief Association Working Group convened by the Office of the State Auditor (OSA) met on January 19 and finalized its legislative proposals for 2023. In addition to some technical clarifications, the proposals would:

• Increase the threshold at which an annual audit is required from the current $500,000 in special fund assets or liabilities to $750,000;
• Add definitions to the relief association statutes of “volunteer,” “paid on-call,” “part-time,” and “full-time/career” firefighter;
• Update firefighter and relief association references to reflect the new definitions;
• Clarify when municipal ratification of a benefit level or bylaw change is required; and
• Clarify eligibility for supplemental benefits when a relief association dissolves.

We’ll keep you updated on the progress of these proposals through our monthly Newsletter and the OSA’s Weekly Update. Meeting agendas and information are available on the Working Group page of the OSA website. Meetings are live-streamed on the OSA’s YouTube channel, and recordings are available on the OSA website following each meeting.

Published last in the January 2023 Pension Newsletter