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Suhd. 2b. Excluded employees. The follo��-ing public employees shall not participate as members of the association with retirement coverage by the public employees retirement plan or the public employees police and fire retirement plan: duties; (I 6) except as provided in section 353.57, volunteer firefighters, as defined in subdivision 36, engaging in activities undertaken as part of volunteer firefighter provided that a person who is a volunteer firefighter may still qualify as a public employee ... on the basis of compensation received from public employment activities other than those as a volunteer firefighter .... Minn. Stat. � 353.01, subd. 2b (16). Chapter 353 defines "volunteer firefighter" as follows: For purposes of this chapter, a person is considered a`volunteer firefighter' for all service for which the person receives credit in an association or fund operating under chapter 424A. fVlinn. Stat. � 353.01, subd. 36. The Legislature did not enact similar exclusionary language in the conte�t of the firefighters' Relief Association pension statutes. There is no statute that specifically addresses the issue of whether salaried firefighters are barred from receiving association pension credit. As required by law, the Hastings Relief Association filed lnnttal reports with the State Auditor's Office. These reports included schedules listing the Plaintiffs and the service credit at�:tcded them for complying ��ith the by-law requirements for active service. In addition to tiling these reports, the Hastings Relief Association contacted the Legislative Commission on Pensions and Retirement shortly after the 1989 amendments to PERA were enacted to ascertain whether a paid firefighter and a member of a volunteer firefighter relief association could receive pension credits under both PERA and the Hastings Relief Association. The record demonstrates ongoing dialogue between the Hastings Relief Association, the Attorney General's Office and