State teachers' retirement.

The Teachers' Retirement Law limits the amount of postretirement compensation that may be earned in specified types of employment by a retired member of the Defined Benefit Program without a reduction in the retirement benefits of the member. That law provides exemptions from this limit and until June 30, 2012, specifies that the limitation provisions do not apply to compensation earned by a member retired for service who has returned to work after retirement and, for at least 12 consecutive months, has not performed specified activities. This bill would extend the operation of that exemption until June 30, 2013. The bill also would exempt from the earnings limitation, until June 30, 2013, compensation paid to a retired member who has returned to work after the date of retirement as a trustee, administrator, or fiscal adviser approved pursuant to specified provisions by the Superintendent of Public Instruction, the Board of Governors of the California Community Colleges, or a county superintendent of schools to address academic or financial weaknesses in a school district. The bill would specify the documentation required for any of those persons exercising that compensation exemption. The bill would additionally exempt from the earnings limitation an employee of a 3rd party which does not participate in a California public pension system if the activities performed by the person are not normally performed by employees of a public employer and it is for a limited-term assignment. The Teachers' Retirement Law limits the amount of compensation for certain creditable service activities by a retired member in one school year to be $22,000 adjusted by the percentage change in the average compensation earnable by active members of the Defined Benefit Program, from the 1998–99 fiscal year to the fiscal year ending in the previous calendar year.The bill would change that limit to be 12 of the median final compensation of all members who retired for service during the fiscal year ending in the previous calendar year. Existing law authorizes a retired member of the State Teachers' Retirement System (STRS) to terminate his or her retirement allowance, reinstate as an active member, and later cancel the termination upon subsequently retiring, as specified. Existing law prescribes the conditions under which a STRS service retirement allowance becomes effective and requires, in this regard, that the effective date be at least one year following the date on which it is terminated pursuant to the above-described provision. This bill would eliminate the one-year waiting period after the termination. The bill would also prohibit a member who terminates his or her retirement allowance pursuant to that provision and retires within one year of reinstatement from electing a different option or different set of beneficiaries than were in effect at the time of the termination. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.