§ 15-102 Volunteer system.

   a.   The paid department system, as soon as practicable, shall be extended over the borough of Staten Island by the commissioner, and thereupon the present volunteer fire companies now maintained therein shall be disbanded. Any real property and any apparatus, equipment or other personal property owned or used by such volunteer forces which may be deemed useful or necessary for the use of the department, upon the extension of the paid system to the borough of Staten Island, shall be purchased by the department of general services upon the recommendation of the commissioner at the reasonable value thereof.

   b.   In the meantime and until the paid department shall be extended over such borough of Staten Island, such volunteer fire companies shall continue to discharge the duties for which they have been associated or incorporated, and there shall be paid on the first day of June in each year to the treasurers of such volunteer fire companies, by the comptroller, the following sums: To the treasurer of an engine company or chemical engine company twelve hundred dollars, to the treasurer of a hook and ladder company ten hundred dollars, to the treasurer of a hose company, eight hundred dollars, and to the treasurer of a patrol company, eight hundred dollars. The city, in its discretion, may appropriate such sum of money as it may deem necessary for the purchase of apparatus for the use of the several volunteer companies in the borough of Staten Island, and for the maintenance of the fire alarm system in such borough.

   c.   The extension of the paid department system shall not affect the rights and privileges of any volunteer benevolent association existing within the territory where such extension is made.

§ 15-103 Qualifications of force of department.

   a.   To qualify for membership in the department a person shall be:

      1.   A citizen of the United States.

      2.   Able understandingly to read and write the English language.

      3.   Shall have passed his or her eighteenth birthday but not his or her twenty-ninth birthday on the date of the filing of his or her application for civil service examination. No person who qualifies under this requirement shall be disqualified from membership in the department because of having passed his or her twenty-ninth birthday subsequent to the filing of his or her application. However no person shall be appointed unless he or she shall have attained his or her twenty-first birthday.

   b.   A conviction of a felony shall disqualify all persons from membership in the department.

   c.   Nothing in this section is intended to repeal or supersede the provisions of section 12-138 of the code.

§ 15-103.1 Chief of department.

Notwithstanding any inconsistent provision of any general, special or local law, including but not limited to section 15-110 of this chapter, to the contrary, the chief of department shall not be required to be selected by competitive examination. The chief of department shall be in the exempt class of the classified service, and shall be selected from among persons holding the title of deputy chief (fire).