(A) Any employee who is a member of a volunteer fire department must notify the County Auditor of such membership.
(B) Any such member shall not be entitled to leave his or her work station or location for the purpose of responding to fire or emergency calls without having prior authorization from that employee’s supervisor, which authorization may be on an event or continuing basis, as determined by such supervisor.
(C) Any such member absent from work because of injury suffered while engaged in a firefighting or emergency event shall be entitled to be absent from work, without compensation, for not in excess of six months, conditioned upon submission of a written statement from the emergency supervisor evidencing injury while on emergency activity, and a physician’s written statement showing treatment received and cause of injury.
(D) Notwithstanding the fact that the county is not obligated to pay any compensation to members of fire departments who are absent due to responses for fire or emergency runs, the county shall pay such employee his or her regular compensation during such county-authorized responses, provided, however, for a period not to exceed ten hours per year; and further provided, that in exchange for such compensation, the County Auditor shall deduct from such regular compensation paid for periods of absence due to an emergency service an amount equal to payments which said employee is entitled to receive from the emergency agency for the period of such absence. During periods of authorized responses when county compensation is not paid, an employee may seek, but the county shall not be required to pay, remuneration for emergency absences by use of vacation leave, personal time, or compensatory time off, if applicable, and, if such absence is due to injury which occurred while engaged in an emergency response, may seek sick leave.
(Ord. 2016-04, passed 10-17-2016)