On June 24, 2014 ballots were tabulated by theAmerican Arbitration Association (AAA)under the oversight of the UFA Election

Committee, as per the UFA Constitution. BrooklynTrustee John Kelly, who is also Chairman of the UFABoard of Trustees, was re-elected to a fifth term.

Firefighter Edward Brown, L-48, who hasserved as Bronx Trustee was elected to the position ofUFA Treasurer, running unopposed. FF. Brown winsthe post held by FF. Robert J. Straub, E-45 who isretiring. FF. William Greco, E-68, also running unop-posed, was elected Bronx Trustee [See inset p.7].

Also running unopposed: Vice President,James Slevin, L-7; Recording Secretary, LeRoy

McGinnis, E-266; Health & Safety Officer/Sergeant-at-Arms, Gerard Fitzgerald, E-318; ManhattanTrustee, Vincent Speciale-E- 55; Queens Trustee,Matthew DesJardin, E-325; Staten Island Trustee, EricBischoff, E-161.

The new term of office takes effectAugust 1, 2014. I am especially honored to havebeen elected to a fifth consecutive term as UFAPresident and to have received the support of UFAmembers. I look forward to working with the union’sExecutive Board and serving the membership. Thereare many challenges ahead and I am very fortunate tohave a great leadership team with which to work.Following are the ballot details. As always, stay safe!

The Bravest OFFICIAL PUBLICATION OF THEUNIFORMED FIREFIGHTERS ASSOCIATION OF GREATER NEW YORK

WWW.UFANYC.ORG VOL. L NO. 2, 2014

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President’s Messageby Stephen J. Cassidy

Steve Cassidy opens the May 2014 Delegate Education Seminar at the Taj Mahal in Atlantic City, NJ.

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BALLOTS SENT OUT Brooklyn Queens Manhattan Bronx SI TOTALTOTAL SENT OUT 2113 1793 1980 1283 606 7775RETURNED 1488 1303 1219 931 445 5386% 70% 73% 62% 73% 73% 69%SET ASIDE 56 41 45 24 24 190TOTAL 1432 1262 1174 907 421 5196

PRESIDENT Brooklyn Queens Manhattan Bronx SI TOTAL*Stephen J. Cassidy, E-236 1029 823 406 670 365 3293% 72% 66% 35% 74% 87% 64%Daniel Murphy, Retired 391 433 752 236 55 1867% 28% 34% 65% 26% 13% 36%Blank/Voided 12 6 16 1 1 36TOTAL 1420 1256 1158 906 420 5160

BROOKLYN TRUSTEE BrooklynThomas A. Buttaro, L-123 502% 35%*John G. Kelly, E-201 919% 65%Blank/Voided 11TOTAL 1421

*James Slevin, L-7 Vice President Unopposed*LeRoy McGinnis, E-266 Recording Secretary Unopposed*Edward Brown, L-48 Treasurer Unopposed*Gerard Fitzgerald, E-318 Health & Safety Officer / Sgt.-at-Arms Unopposed*Matthew DesJardin, E-325 Queens Trustee Unopposed*Eric Bischoff, E-161 Staten Island Trustee Unopposed*Vincent Speciale, E-55 Manhattan Trustee Unopposed*William Greco, E-68 Bronx Trustee Unopposed *Denotes Winner

ELECTION RESULTS

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Legislative Updateby James M. Slevin, Vice President

Lobby Day & Albany Roundup.

On April 29th over 150 UFA membersdescended on the State Capital to pushthe UFA legislative agenda. Members

were given legislative agenda packets and sentto lobby their legislators. Included in the pack-ets were bills on CUNY Tuition Waiver,Veterans Service Credit, Line of Duty WidowsCOLA, WTC Registration Reopener and a TierIII Pension Fix.

The UFA Executive Board and some ofthe members in attendance attended meetingswith the leadership including Speaker Silver andCo-Majority Leaders Jeff Klein and DeanSkelos. These meetings along with a greatturnout for Lobby Day resulted in multiple UFAsupported bills getting passed at the end of thesession. This success is in addition to the UFAgetting the first bill of the year passed and signedbut the Governor, the WTC Legacy Credit Fix.Unfortunately the top priority, Tier III PensionFix, did not advance because we were unable toget a home rule from the NYC Council. Thiswas a big disappointment and we believe thecities cost estimates were wrong. We will con-tinue to lobby the City Council and not let upuntil this important legislation passes.

The bills that passed now have to be sentto the Governor for his approval. We will keepthe members apprised of this progress throughthe website and 65-2’s. Members should alsolook out for important information regarding theupcoming elections in New York State. Everymember of the Senate and Assembly is up forelection in addition to races for Governor,Attorney General and State Comptroller. Weanticipate being active in all of these races andwill need a large turnout from the membership.

The full list of Bills that have passedboth the Senate and Assembly that affect UFAmembers:

WTC Registration Reopener S7628 (Golden)A9562 (Abbate)This bill would implement the recommendationsof the September Eleventh Worker ProtectionTask Force ("911 Task Force") to address limita-tions in existing disability laws that were intend-ed to protect public employees who sufferinjuries or illnesses as a result of their participa-tion in rescue, recovery and cleanup directlyrelated to the terrorist attacks of SeptemberEleventh by reopening and extending theexpired statutory deadline for filing statement ofparticipations.

Line of Duty Widows COLAS.6467-A (Golden)/A.8484-A (Markey)This legislation extends the escalation of a costof living increase of approximately 3% for allline-of-duty widows or widowers for fiscal year2014-15.

Veterans Service CreditS.4714-A (Larkin)/A.6974-A (Paulin)This legislation would expand the current veter-an retirement buyback by removing limitationson the periods of time during which militaryservice was rendered for purposes of determin-ing eligibility. The bill also removes the limita-tions that the applicant served in the theatre ofoperations during the period of conflict.

Negotiability of Disciplinary ProceduresA9853 (Abbate)/S7801 (Golden)This bill amends Section 76 of the Civil ServiceLaw to modify the language relied on by severalcourts in holding disciplinary procedures to beoutside the protection of the Taylor Law whereany other law commits discipline to the discre-tion of local officials and to make it clear thatother competitive class public employees in thisstate are entitled to collectively bargain the dis-ciplinary procedures that affect them in theiremployment. The bill would also restore the pro-visions of any collective bargaining agreementsor interest arbitration awards between publicemployers and public employee organizationsrelative to discipline that were invalidated byjudicial or administrative decisions.

Since its inception in 2002, the UFA Line OfDuty Funeral Fund (LODFF) has been ourmembers’ unique way of repaying the kind-

ness and support extended to us in the days,weeks, and months, after September 11, 2001,when Firefighters from all over the country flood-ed into New York City, eager to help in any waythey could.

In just the past 18 months the LODFF hassent 99 members to funerals in 15 cities.

The UFA Funeral Fund Committee is madeup of members representing each borough and ischaired by a UFA Executive Board member, theQueens Trustee. The current borough representa-tives are: Joseph Connolly (E-66, Bronx); EdwardLawler (L-140, Queens); Matthew Gianone (E-151, Staten Island); Sal Argano (E-10, Manhattan)and Frank Fracchiolla (E-201, Brooklyn).Christine Early serves as LOD FundAdministrator.

This article is intended to provide updateson some changes to the LOD Fund operation aswell as to address some commonly asked ques-tions.

Members are called upon to attend according to afirehouse attendance schedule, which was estab-lished to ensure every company gets a chance torepresent the UFA and minimize the confusion andvolume of inquiry calls when an out-of-townfuneral occurs.

The schedule is ordered numerically withineach borough (as opposed to being ordered by bat-talion), starting with the lowest-numbered enginecompany and working upwards numerically,including single truck companies, with specialunits at the end. The Fund Administrator workswith the Delegates of companies next on the

schedule to determine attendees within the fire-house. The firehouses rotate through the fiveboroughs.

While every attempt is made to followattendance procedure strictly, from time-to-time,last-minute decisions and substitutions must bemade in order to get our members where they needto be. Therefore it is important to keep in mindthat flexibility is a key element in this process.

The most significant change to the UFALOD Funeral Fund is that the LOD Fund will nowprovide financial assistance (based on need) to thehonor company of any UFA member that dies inthe Line of Duty or WTC-related LOD death, tohelp offset the costs related to that event. Amountsof up to $2,500 are available for disbursement, andwill be determined by the UFA Executive Board.

The program is still going strong, and theappreciation from other towns and cities neverdiminishes. The fact that we are still traveling,thirteen years after 9/11 attests to how much itmeans to our members to be able to continue toexpress gratitude and show respect in an ongoingand deeply meaningful way. It also ensures that noone—not the members of Local 94, nor the mem-bers of any of the Locals across North Americathat we pay these sad visits to—will ever forgetthe sacrifices of any of our fallen brother fire-fighters.

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LOD Funeral Committeeby Matthew M. DesJardin, E-325Queens Trustee

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- - -

In existence since 2002, one of the UFA’s mostimportant and popular funds has been the AnnualScholarship Fund, which helps with the high costs

of post-secondary undergraduate education. ActiveUFA members continue to contribute toward maintain-ing this fund that helps so many of our families. Overthe course of its 12-year existence, the fund has givenout over 10,000 scholarships (totaling over 5.3 milliondollars).

On June 30th the UFA hosted a Golf OutingFundraiser, and through the generosity of our support-ers and hard work of the Board, we raised over$100,000 in new funds.

This scholarship is for dependent children ofactive, retired, or deceased Firefighters, Fire Marshals,and Marine Wipers.. Applicants up to and includingthe age of 23, must be full-time undergraduates cur-rently enrolled in a college, trade, or vocational school.

Active members, spouses of LOD-deceasedUFA members, and dependent children of non-LODdeceased UFA members, are also eligible to receivescholarships for undergraduate education. All eligibleindividuals must fill out an application and provideproof of enrollment.

Applications become available on the UFAwebsite(http://www.ufanyc.org/funds/scholar911.php)late each summer and have an October deadline.Applications are processed by Katie Kelly who can becontacted at Kkelly@ufanyc.org or 646-839-6506.

Current Committee members include: James Ippolito,E-236 (Brooklyn); Mike Canale, E-59 (Manhattan);John DeBenedittis, E-289 (Queens); Matt Gianone, E-151 (Staten Island); Brian Hennelly, E-42 (Bronx).

Recording Secretary’s Updateby LeRoy C. McGinnis, E-266Chair-UFA Scholarship Committee

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TThe 2014 IAFF Fallen Fire Fighter MemorialService will be held Saturday, September 20,2014. The mission of the IAFF Fallen Fire

Fighter Memorial, which is located in the shadow ofPike's Peak, is to honor the sacrifice made by IAFFmembers who serve as professional fire fighters andemergency medical personnel who have given theirlives in the line of duty (LOD). Previously only mem-bers that had succumbed to an LOD injury or an on-duty heart attack had been submitted to the IAFF andhad their names added to the memorial.

The UFA is now able to submit the names ofmembers who died either active or retired and wereclassified WTC LOD by the pension boards, since2002. The IAFF website www.iaff.org has a sectiondedicated to this event, including year-by-year listingsof all IAFF members that have been placed on the wallsince 1976. Included on the homepage are photo gal-leries of recent ceremonies. This year’s memorial

event begins at 1PM MST, and will be broadcast livevia the IAFF website.

Any inquiries about the UFA members beingadded to the wall should be directed to the RecordingSecretary’s office.

UFA Members inscribed in 2013 included thefollowing:

Michael Sofia E-165, William St George E-236,Martin “Marty” Simmons L-111, John McNamara E-234, RobetHauber E-284, Robert Ford E-284, RichieManetta L-156, James Ryan L-167, Roy Chelsen E-28,Willie T. Franklin E-65, Brian Malloy L-80, StevenMosiello BFI, Carl Capobianco L-87, Ray Ragucci E-5, Chris Whelehan L-111, Larry Sullivan R-5, MikeBehette E-227, Marty Mchale BFI, Charles “Chuck”Jones L-165

The following members will be inscribed onthe wall at this year’s ceremony:Kevin Delano, Sr L-142, Vincent AlbaneseL-38, William “Billy” Quick L-134, Aldolfo “Al” Otano E-202, and Walter“Wally” Torres.

IAFF Fallen Firefighter Memorialby LeRoy C. McGinnis, E-266UFA Recording Secretary

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FF. William Greco, E-68, was elected the new UFABronx Trustee and looks forward to serving themembership. His term begins on August 1st.

The UFA Executive Board and Firefighters with Co-Majority Leader Jeff Klein at LobbyDay, April 29, 2014.

204 EAST 23rd STREET, NEW YORK, N.Y. 10010-9998Tel (212) 683-4832 • Fax (212) 683-0710

www.ufanyc.org

STEPHEN J. CASSIDYPresident ENG 236

STEPHEN J. CASSIDYEditor-In-Chief

STEPHEN N. SYMBOLIK IIIManaging Editor

Uniformed Firefighters Association

JAMES M. SLEVINVice President LAD 7

ROBERT STRAUBTreasurer ENG 45

JOHN G. KELLY, JRTrustee-Brooklyn ENG 201Chairman, Board of Trustees

MATTHEW M. DESJARDINTrustee-Queens ENG 325

VINCENT SPECIALETrustee-Manhattan ENG 55

LEROY C. MCGINNISRecording Secretary ENG 266

GERARD FITZGERALDHealth & Safety Officer ENG 318Sergeant-at-Arms

EDWARD BROWNTrustee-Bronx LAD 48

ERIC BISCHOFFTrustee-Staten Island ENG 161

STEVEN TAGLIANIFire Marshal Representative BFI

PresortedFirst Class Mail

US PostagePA I D

Farmingdale, NYPermit No.125