Troy approves swapping its volunteer firefighters’ lump-sum rewards for a yearly payout

TROY, Mich. — Troy’s volunteer firefighters will trade a tiered system of lump-sum rewards for a payout figured and paid once a year under a plan the City Council approved Monday, Oct. 5, after a public hearing, according to the council’s draft minutes.

The change ends the city’s 2023 Firefighters Incentive Plan on Dec. 31 and starts a new Volunteer Firefighters Incentive Plan on Jan. 1, 2027. In a memo to the council, city staff wrote that no volunteer would lose benefits or service credit earned so far. Balances under the 2023 plan would vest at year’s end and be paid in a lump sum within 60 days.

The proposal came out of talks that began in January between city management and the Volunteer Firefighters Incentive Committee, which has a representative from each fire station. The council resolution says the aim was a structure that satisfies the federal Fair Labor Standards Act and the Internal Revenue Code. The committee reported a generally positive response from volunteers, according to the memo.

Under the new plan, a volunteer earns credit for each month in which they meet the department’s attendance rules and serve at least 10 days. Each qualifying month is worth $694.86 for the first 120 months of credited service and $1,389.72 after that. District chiefs, station captains and station lieutenants earn 1.3 times those rates, or $903.32 and $1,806.64.

The city would add up each volunteer’s qualifying months at the end of the year and pay the total within 60 days. A volunteer must first serve 24 months, or 36 months for those who were not state-certified firefighters when they joined. The rates would rise each year with the state’s inflation multiplier for property taxes, capped at 5%, and could not go down.

Payments would come from the city’s general assets. The plan document states that the program is not a pension or retirement plan, and that volunteers remain ineligible for the retirement, health and other benefits the city provides employees.

The approved resolution also directs City Manager Frank Nastasi to negotiate individual agreements, within 60 days, with longtime volunteers who had at least 25 years of service by May 1, 2025, and were not eligible for the 2023 plan. The payments would approximate some or all of what that plan would have paid them.

Council members gave the 30 days’ notice required to end the 2023 plan at their Aug. 31 meeting, after Fire Chief Peter Hullinger and committee members presented the proposal, according to the agenda and a Citizen Portal summary of that meeting. The council approved both the termination and the new plan 6-0 on Oct. 5, with Council Member Annalisa Bluhm absent, according to the city’s draft minutes. No one spoke at the public hearing.

On the same agenda, the council voted 6-0 to waive bidding and hire Empco Inc., a Troy testing firm that has run the department’s promotional exams since 1990, for an estimated $14,703 to fill a staff lieutenant post left open by the death of Staff Lt. Charles Noonan.

Updated Oct. 13, 2026: Troy’s draft Oct. 5 minutes show the City Council approved the incentive-plan change 6-0 after a public hearing with no comment, and also voted 6-0 to hire Empco for the promotional testing. The new plan takes effect Jan. 1, 2027. The headline was updated to reflect the vote.

Updated Oct. 14, 2026: The opening paragraphs now describe the plan as approved on Oct. 5 rather than as a scheduled vote, and note that the adopted resolution directs the city manager to negotiate agreements with longtime volunteers, per the city’s draft minutes.

Sources:
City of Troy, City Council Minutes-Draft, Oct. 5, 2026 (Resolution #2026-10-143 and item I.4), https://apps.troymi.gov/Meetings/Meetings/DownloadPDF/7323143
City of Troy, City Council regular meeting agenda and packet, Oct. 5, 2026 (item E.1, Firefighters Incentive Plan termination and new plan; item I.4, fire department testing services), https://apps.troymi.gov/Meetings/Meetings/DownloadPDF/7316027
Citizen Portal, “Council issues 30-day notice for proposed change to volunteer firefighter incentive plan,” Sept. 1, 2026, https://citizenportal.ai/articles/9778035/michigan/oakland-county/troy-city/council-issues-30-day-notice-for-proposed-change-to-volunteer-firefighter-incentive-plan
City of Troy, City Council meeting schedule, https://apps.troymi.gov/CouncilSchedule
Photo: Stephanie~commonswiki, “Watervliet fire trucks,” March 27, 2007, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/), cropped and color-corrected; derivative under the same ShareAlike license, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Watervliet_fire_trucks.jpg

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