STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
959
2017-2018 Regular Sessions
IN ASSEMBLY
January 10, 2017
___________
Introduced by M. of A. GALEF, LAWRENCE -- read once and referred to the
Committee on Election Law
AN ACT to amend the election law, the general municipal law, the local
finance law and the town law, in relation to annual and special fire
district elections; and to repeal certain provisions of the town law
relating thereto
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. Legislative intent. The county boards of elections will
2 assume the responsibility for overseeing fire district elections. Such
3 elections will take place on the days of village and town elections and
4 in the registered voters' regular polling place. The fire district
5 governing boards will provide the county boards of elections with the
6 information necessary to administer such fire district elections.
7 Voter access to fire district elections will increase as the fire
8 district elections will take place on a date and location familiar to
9 all voters, additional voting hours are provided and absentee ballot
10 applications will be available. This legislation upholds and strengthens
11 the federal Help America Vote Act (HAVA) since the electronic marking
12 ballot device would be accessible to all persons with disabilities.
13 § 2. Subdivisions 1, 2, 4, 5, and 6 of section 175, sections 175-a and
14 175-b, subdivisions 3, 6, 7, 8, and 29 of section 176 and section 179 of
15 the town law are REPEALED.
16 § 3. The election law is amended by adding a new article 18 to read as
17 follows:
18 ARTICLE 18
19 FIRE DISTRICT ELECTIONS
20 Section 18-100. Annual and special elections.
21 18-102. Nominating petitions.
22 18-104. Vacancies.
23 18-106. Certificates.
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD02880-01-7
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1 § 18-100. Annual and special elections. 1. Annual and special fire
2 district elections shall be governed by the rules and procedures of
3 articles one, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine and ten of this
4 chapter and shall take place on the Tuesday next succeeding the first
5 Monday in November.
6 2. The county boards of election will consult with fire districts to
7 establish the voting process by which eligible electors for each fire
8 district vote at their election district polling place.
9 § 18-102. Nominating petitions. Notwithstanding subdivision two of
10 section 6-142 of this chapter with respect to nominating petitions and
11 signatures, candidates for fire district offices shall file with the
12 county board of elections a nominating petition subscribed by twenty-
13 five voters of the fire district in the form set forth in section 6-140
14 of this chapter.
15 § 18-104. Vacancies. 1. Any vacancy in an elective office which exists
16 on or before September nineteenth shall be filled at the next November
17 general election held thereafter, for the remainder of the unexpired
18 term and shall take office on January first of the following year. The
19 board of fire commissioners of a fire district, or a majority of the
20 members thereof in office may appoint a qualified person to fill a
21 vacancy until December thirty-first after an election has been held to
22 fill said vacancy.
23 2. Whenever a vacancy shall occur in an appointed fire district
24 office, the board of fire commissioners, or a majority of the members
25 thereof in office may appoint a qualified person to fill the vacancy for
26 the remainder of the unexpired term.
27 § 18-106. Certificates. A fire district, at least eight months before
28 each general election, shall make and transmit to the board of elections
29 a certificate stating each fire district office to be voted for at each
30 such election. If any such office is for an unexpired term, the certif-
31 icate shall so state.
32 § 4. The opening paragraph of subdivision 4 of section 6-g of the
33 general municipal law, as separately amended by chapters 234 and 235 of
34 the laws of 2006, is amended to read as follows:
35 Any resolution of the board of fire commissioners authorizing the
36 establishment of a reserve fund shall not take effect until approved by
37 the affirmative vote of a majority of the electors of such fire district
38 affected, qualified to vote at an annual election of fire district offi-
39 cers, voting on such proposition. Any special election shall be held in
40 the manner provided in [section one hundred seventy-nine of the town
41 law] article eighteen of the election law, as amended from time to time.
42 § 5. Subdivision 6 of section 6-h of the general municipal law, as
43 amended by chapter 592 of the laws of 1957, is amended to read as
44 follows:
45 6. The governing board of a municipal corporation may, subject to a
46 permissive referendum, authorize the transfer of a portion or all of
47 such reserve to a capital reserve fund established pursuant to section
48 six-c of [the general municipal law] this article.
49 The board of fire commissioners of a fire district may, subject to the
50 approval of the voters at a regular or special election in such
51 district, in the manner provided in [section one hundred seventy-nine of
52 the town law] article eighteen of the election law, authorize the trans-
53 fer of a portion or all of such reserve to a capital reserve fund estab-
54 lished pursuant to section six-g [hereof] of this article.
55 § 6. Paragraph a of section 38.00 of the local finance law is amended
56 to read as follows:
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1 a. A bond resolution or a capital note resolution adopted by the
2 finance board of a fire district shall not become effective unless it
3 shall have been approved at a regular or special election of such
4 district in the manner provided in [section one hundred and seventy-nine
5 of the town law] article eighteen of the election law, as amended from
6 time to time.
7 § 7. Subdivision 16, the second undesignated paragraph of subdivision
8 18, and subdivision 23 of section 176 of the town law, subdivision 16 as
9 amended by chapter 211 of the laws of 1958, the second undesignated
10 paragraph of subdivision 18 as amended by chapter 28 of the laws of
11 1969, and subdivision 23 as amended by chapter 430 of the laws of 2016,
12 are amended to read as follows:
13 16. May contract to provide outside of the fire district (1) fire
14 protection, (2) emergency service in case of accidents, calamities or
15 other emergencies, or (3) general ambulance service pursuant to the
16 provisions of section two hundred nine-b of the general municipal law,
17 upon such terms as the board of fire commissioners may determine proper,
18 provided that such service can be supplied without undue hazard to the
19 fire district furnishing the service. Whenever the fire department or
20 fire company of a fire district provides any such service to outside
21 territory pursuant to a contract, as aforesaid, the board of fire
22 commissioners of such fire district may pay to the fire department of
23 such fire district, or to any fire company or companies of such fire
24 district, performing the service, such portion of the contract price as
25 such board may deem proper, but not in any event to exceed thirty-five
26 per centum of such contract price. The amount received pursuant to any
27 such contract may be expended without being included in the amount that
28 may be expended annually without the adoption of a proposition therefor
29 as provided in subdivision [numbered] eighteen of this section [and in
30 section one hundred seventy-nine of this chapter].
31 In addition to such expenditures, the board of fire commissioners of
32 any fire district may, without the adoption of a proposition therefor,
33 expend from the first district revenues for any fiscal year for purposes
34 authorized by or pursuant to law not to exceed two thousand dollars and
35 in districts having a full valuation of real property taxable for fire
36 district purposes in excess of one million dollars an additional amount
37 equivalent to one mill for each dollar of full valuation of taxable real
38 property in excess of the first million dollars of full valuation of
39 such taxable real property. Such full valuation shall, for the purposes
40 of this subdivision, be computed by dividing the assessed valuation of
41 the real property subject to taxation by the fire district, as shown on
42 the assessment roll for the fire district which was completed in the
43 second calendar year prior to that in which the expenditure is to be
44 made, by the town equalization rate established for such roll by the
45 state board of equalization and assessment. Where, in the case of a
46 newly-created fire district, there is no such completed assessment roll
47 for such fire district, full valuation shall be determined from the
48 assessment roll upon which the real property included within the
49 district was assessed for town purposes and which was completed in the
50 second calendar year prior to that in which the expenditure is to be
51 made. In any fire district the foregoing limitations provided in this
52 subdivision may be exceeded if a proposition has been adopted [pursuant
53 to paragraph (d) of subdivision one of section one hundred seventy-nine
54 of this chapter].
55 23. May sell or otherwise dispose of real and personal property of the
56 district no longer necessary for any of its uses or purposes if, when
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1 and in the manner and to the extent authorized so to do in a proposition
2 which is duly submitted and adopted or approved at a special or annual
3 fire district election in the manner provided by [section one hundred
4 seventy-nine of this] article eighteen of the election law for voting
5 upon appropriations, except that if a proposition shall be submitted
6 [pursuant to the provisions of said section] for the purchase of appara-
7 tus or if a proposition shall be submitted pursuant to the local finance
8 law for the approval of a bond resolution or a capital note resolution
9 for obligations to be issued for the purchase of apparatus, such propo-
10 sition may specify that apparatus or equipment owned by the district or
11 the proceeds of the sale thereof is to be used in part payment for new
12 apparatus and the adoption of such proposition shall authorize the sale
13 or such other disposition of such apparatus or equipment, or if appara-
14 tus or equipment is to be purchased without the submission of a proposi-
15 tion as aforesaid apparatus or equipment owned by the district may be
16 used as part payment for new apparatus or equipment without the adoption
17 of a proposition therefor, and except also that the board of fire
18 commissioners may at any time sell or otherwise dispose of real and
19 personal property of the district no longer necessary for any of its
20 uses or purposes if valued at less than one hundred thousand dollars but
21 not below twenty thousand dollars, if, when and in the manner and to the
22 extent authorized so to do in a resolution which shall be subject to a
23 permissive referendum governed in the manner provided in subdivision
24 four of section six-g of the general municipal law and except also that
25 the board of fire commissioners may at any time sell or otherwise
26 dispose of real and personal property of the district no longer neces-
27 sary for any of its uses or purposes without the adoption of a proposi-
28 tion therefor if the value of such real and personal property does not
29 exceed the sum of twenty thousand dollars.
30 § 8. Subdivision 3 of section 186 of the town law, as amended by chap-
31 ter 774 of the laws of 1952, is amended to read as follows:
32 3. Every incorporated fire company, and every town fire company estab-
33 lished and existing on June first, nineteen hundred thirty-three, pursu-
34 ant to sections three hundred ten, three hundred eleven and three
35 hundred twelve of article fourteen of chapter sixty-three of the laws of
36 nineteen hundred nine, entitled "An act relating to towns, constituting
37 chapter sixty-two of the consolidated laws," and acts amendatory thereof
38 and supplemental thereto, which shall have its headquarters in any water
39 district, water supply district, or highway district, and providing fire
40 protection in such district on the first day of June, nineteen hundred
41 thirty-three, shall continue to exist and may provide fire protection in
42 such districts or any of them, and each such district shall constitute a
43 fire protection district and be subject to all of the provisions of this
44 chapter relating to fire protection districts, so far as the same do not
45 conflict with the provisions of this subdivision. However, any water
46 district, governed by district commissioners, providing fire protection
47 pursuant to this subdivision shall constitute and be a fire district,
48 with all powers and limitations of a fire district so far as the same do
49 not conflict with the provisions of this subdivision. The town board of
50 the town in which any such district is located may contract with any
51 such incorporated fire company or town fire company for the furnishing
52 of fire protection within such district and the amount of any such
53 contract shall be assessed and levied upon the taxable property in such
54 district and collected in the same manner as town charges are assessed,
55 levied and collected. The funds so collected shall be paid by the
56 collector to the supervisor of the town who shall apply the same in
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1 payment of the amount of such contract. The board of water commission-
2 ers, in the case of water districts to which the provisions of article
3 thirteen of this chapter apply, or the town board of the town in the
4 case of the other districts hereinbefore specified, shall have and may
5 exercise any and all of the powers and duties of fire district commis-
6 sioners as provided in subdivisions nine to twenty-five inclusive of
7 section one hundred seventy-six of this chapter, and may purchase, equip
8 and operate an ambulance for the benefit of the residents of the
9 district and may, upon its own motion and shall, upon petition, cause to
10 be submitted at a special or annual district election a proposition [in
11 the manner and for any of the purposes specified in section one hundred
12 seventy-nine of this chapter]. The board of water commissioners, if
13 there be any, in the case of water districts, and the town board in the
14 case of other districts shall annually prepare and file with the super-
15 visor and town clerk of each town in which such district is located, an
16 itemized and verified statement of the amount of moneys necessary to be
17 raised in such district for fire purposes and the amount thereof shall
18 be assessed and levied on the taxable property of such district, and
19 collected, all in the manner provided in section one hundred eighty-one
20 of this chapter. An annual financial statement setting forth in detail
21 the receipts and expenditures of such district for fire purposes shall
22 be filed by the board of water commissioners, if there be any, in the
23 case of water districts and by the town board, in the case of all other
24 districts, in the manner provided in section one hundred eighty-one.
25 § 9. This act shall take effect two years after it shall have become a
26 law.