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May 22, 2014
TO THE PRESIDENT AND MEMBERS OF THE
COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA:
For the reasons set forth below, I hereby return unsigned to your Honorable Body Bill No. 140093, which passed Council on May 8, 2014.
This Bill would amend the Fire Code to declare that Fire Service Paramedics must be considered firemen for the purposes of the Act of June 28, 1935, referred to as the Enforcement Officer Disability Benefits Law, or the Heart and Lung Act.
As my Administration has testified, and as the Law Department has advised, the question of whether Fire Service Paramedics are firemen for purposes of the Heart and Lung Act is a question of state law that must be decided by the courts or the General Assembly.
I honor the important and heroic work of Fire Service Paramedics. However, it is simply not possible to change state law through City legislation in this way. Accordingly, I am constrained to return this Bill without my signature.
Respectfully,
MICHAEL A. NUTTER