Andy Lay
The Columbus Fire Department has updated its required qualifications for applicants due to new state legislation that changes the mandatory age requirements.
The Columbus Board of Works has approved an updated firefighter/EMT job description for the Columbus Fire Department.
City attorney Alan Whitted said that his interpretation of the new legislation, Senate Enrolled Act 185, is that a fireman must be at least 21 and no older than 39 without prior service.
The previous version of CFD’s firefighter/EMT job description stated that candidates for the position had to be at least 21 years old and under the age of 36 at the date of hire, save for some exceptions that exist under state code.
The updated version simply states that candidates must “be compliant with Indiana Code 36-8-4-7,” while still including the same provisions for military and “lateral transfer hire” exceptions.
“We’ve had some discussion in the future with recruitment, retention, things like that, looking at 18-year-olds to be hired,” said CFD Chief Andy Lay. “In the past, you could hire 18-year-olds, because it didn’t reference it in state statute. But now that the new state statute says 21 to 39, there’s some confusion. They may be going back and changing it again. So learning that, we thought it was best practice just to say that in our new revised job description, that we’ll just follow IC code, period. And then we will make the necessary changes, if we would like to, in our application.”
SEA 185 includes changes to IC 36-8-3.5-12, which previously stated that individuals appointed to a fire department had to be at least 21 but under 36, whereas individuals appointed to a police department had to be at least 21 but under 40, with some exceptions. This section has been updated to state that appointees to both departments must be at least 21 but under 40, with some exceptions.
The act also updates 36-8-4-7, which previously stated that a person generally could not be appointed as a member of a fire department after reaching 36 years of age and could not be appointed to a police department after reaching 40, with some exceptions. The code now states that the cutoff for both departments is 40, with some exceptions.
SEA 185 also includes changes to the 1977 Indiana Police Officers’ and Firefighters Retirement Fund.
