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Delaware board prods state to clarify veteran status

The Daily Star - 5/13/2021

May 13—The Delaware County Board of Supervisors at its Wednesday, May 13, meeting unanimously passed a resolution calling on the New York State and Local Retirement System to change its interpretation of "honorable service" for the purposes of recognizing military service credit.

Delaware County Veterans Services Director Charlie Piper said he was told by a veteran who applied to the NYSLRS for credit for his discharge under honorable conditions from the military.

"'Discharge under honorable conditions' and 'honorable discharge' — they have the same weight," Piper said. "For those of us in the military and in military services, they accept that. It's not a question."

"For some reason, the NYSLRS decided that you have to have a document that says 'honorable discharge,'" he continued, noting that a discharge under honorable conditions might entail "some small misconduct" with the disciplinary weight equivalent to that of a speeding ticket.

"For service credit purposes, these are all good credit, so there's no reason at all for them not to do this," Piper said.

Piper said he was unaware if the issue had been raised in other counties, but promised to pass along the resolution to his peers across the state.

"We're not going to know about the problem until someone brings it to our attention," he said. "This is one veteran, since I've been here, who's brought this to my attention. I don't know how many other veterans have been turned down for the same reason. This may catch on as it goes out."

Walton Town Supervisor Joe Cetta, a 36-year veteran of the U.S. Marine Corps and National Guard, said he "sold back" his time in the military, which added three years onto his retirement as a public employee.

"It's a very good benefit and I wholeheartedly agree with this," he said. "What they really look for is a bad conduct discharge or a dishonorable discharge. Anything else is irrelevant."

—In other business, the board set a public hearing for a local law that would lower the hunting age from 14 to 12 in accordance with a provision in the state's 2021-2022 Executive Budget for a pilot program to allow 12- and 13-year-olds to hunt deer with a firearm or crossbow during hunting season.

"Hunting under supervision is an excellent way to bring hunters into the game, and it's under Economic Development because hunting is still very important to our Delaware County economy," Davenport Town Supervisor Dennis Valente said. "This gives us a chance to expand that."

"I had a lot of people contact me that were very much in favor of this," said Bovina Town Supervisor and board chair Tina Molé.

The public hearing will be held at 12:45 p.m. Wednesday, May 26.

Sarah Eames, staff writer, can be reached at seames@thedailystar.com or 607-441-7213. Follow her @DS_SarahE on Twitter.

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