Public employees' retirement: elected local officials.

Existing law authorizes the creation of retirement systems for public employees by counties, cities, and districts. Existing law creates the Public Employees' Retirement System and the State Teachers' Retirement System, which provide a defined benefit to their members based on age at retirement, service credit, and final compensation. Existing law establishes the criteria for membership in the various public employee retirement systems and may exclude certain employment classifications from membership. The California Constitution provides for the division of the state into counties and requires that a county have an elected sheriff, elected district attorney, elected assessor, and elected governing body. Existing law provides for the incorporation of cities in various forms and requires that certain city offices be filled pursuant to elections, as prescribed. Existing law provides for the creation of districts, the governing bodies of which may be elected. This bill would prohibit a person who is publicly elected to a local office of any kind, on and after January 1, 2012, from becoming a member of a retirement system by virtue of that service or from acquiring any retirement right or benefit for serving in that elective local office. The bill would also apply these prohibitions to a person who is appointed to fill the term of a person so elected, but would not apply them to a person who obtained membership by virtue of holding an elective local office prior to January 1, 2012, for so long as he or she holds that office or is reelected to that office.