First aiders’ compensation
plan has outstanding issues
Public question
will not be placed
on November ballot
MANALAPAN — While residents may one day get a chance to decide if volunteer members of the local first aid squad should receive deferred compensation, that decision will not be made this year.
At their meeting of Aug. 8, members of the Township Committee told a rep-resentative of the Englishtown-Manalapan First Aid Squad there is not enough time to answer all of the questions that must be addressed before a Length of Service Awards Program (LOSAP) can be started.
Recently, representatives of the first aid squad have asked township officials to consider placing a question on the ballot to seek voter approval for such a program. First aid squad officials in area communities that have pursued LOSAP have described it as one type of incentive that can be used to recruit and maintain volunteer squad members.
Joseph Bergen, representing the Englishtown-Manalapan First Aid Squad, asked the committee on Aug. 8 if the LOSAP question would be placed on the ballot in November. He was told that in order to get a question on the ballot in November, the decision would have to be made by Aug. 24.
"Practically speaking, there is no time to get the question on the ballot in November because there are a number of unresolved issues," said James Devereaux, the township’s business administrator.
Mayor Mary Cozzolino told Bergen the governing body would like to pursue LOSAP as soon as possible.
In a subsequent conversation with the News Transcript, Devereaux noted some of the issues to be discussed before a LOSAP program can begin.
Because the first aid squad serves two separate communities — Englishtown and Manalapan — it must be determined if Englishtown officials would be willing to participate in the LOSAP program, he said.
"I don’t believe the first aid squad officials considered that aspect of the situation," Devereaux. "If Englishtown decides to participate, we will need an interlocal agreement between the two communities spelling out the responsibilities of each party."
Second on the list of questions to be answered is the amount of compensation each volunteer would receive on an annual basis. By law, the LOSAP is allowed to compensate every volunteer between $100 and $1,150 per year, the business administrator said.
A first aid squad representative said at a recent meeting that the squad would like to compensate its qualifying volunteers with the maximum allowable annual amount.
"There are two companies approved to run these type of deferred compensation programs in New Jersey," Devereaux said. "The volunteers would not be paid on an annual basis. Instead, the town would make a contribution in the name of each qualifying first aid squad volunteer to the company that has been selected to run the program and that company would invest the money for the volunteer, similar to a 401(k) account."
The third major question to be answered about LOSAP is the point system that would be used to determine which volunteers qualify for the compensation, he said. The point system must be set forth in a municipal ordinance and can be based on items such as a volunteer’s response to emergency calls and attendance at training sessions and monthly squad meetings, Devereaux explained.
"No one has ever sat down to determine the point system we will use for LOSAP," he said, adding that "the Township Committee definitely wants to do this, and I am quite certain there will be a LOSAP program. There just wasn’t enough time to get it on the ballot for November."
Devereaux said it is his understanding that the LOSAP question has to placed on the general election ballot in November, although he said he will attempt to determine if that is an absolute requirement.

