Public employees' retirement.

(1) The Public Employees' Retirement Law (PERL) creates the Public Employees' Retirement System (PERS) , which provides a defined benefit to its members based on age at retirement, service credit, and final compensation. Existing law also establishes the Judges' Retirement System and the Judges' Retirement System II which provide pension benefits to elected judges and the Legislators' Retirement System which provides pension benefits to elective officers of the state other than judges and to legislative statutory officers. This bill would provide that all references to "spouse," "surviving spouse," or "marriage" in these provisions apply equally to a domestic partner or domestic partnership, as defined, and all rights and responsibilities granted to a spouse or surviving spouse shall be granted equally to a domestic partner, as specified. (2) PERL provides that credit for service generally is accrued based upon service rendered and compensated in a fiscal year, and that time during which a member is absent without compensation is not allowed for computing service. Further, PERL provides that, when a member is subject to mandatory furloughs, as defined, the member's credits for service and compensation earnable are based on the amounts that would have been credited had the employee not been subject to mandatory furloughs. This bill would expand the definition of mandatory furlough to include those employees subject to mandatory furloughs under a specified provision. (3) PERL defines "leave of absence" to include absence from state service because of illness that arose out of and in the course of employment and for which the member received temporary disability benefits during the absence and did not receive full compensation, as specified. PERL authorizes a member who returns to active service following an employer-approved uncompensated leave of absence because of his or her serious illness to purchase service credit for that period of absence, as specified. This bill would clarify that definition to include absence from state service because of illness or injury that arose out of and in the course of employment, and would authorize the purchase of service credit following an employer-approved uncompensated leave of absence because of the member's serious illness or injury. (4) Existing law directs the Board of Administration of PERS to establish a building account from the retirement fund to use for acquiring real property, and for building, remodeling, maintaining, repairing, and improving that property. This bill would permit funds in the above-described building account to be used for other necessary operational expenses. (5) Existing law requires the Board of Administration of PERS to submit a quarterly review of the system's assets, as specified, to the Legislature. This review must include information on the time-weighted and dollar-weighted return on a 5-year, 3-year, 2-year, and 1-year basis. This bill would eliminate the requirement that the quarterly review described above include information on the time-weighted and dollar-weighted return on a 2-year basis. (6) Existing law generally prohibits a person who has been retired under PERS from serving without reinstatement from retirement, except as specified. Existing law authorizes a retired person to serve without reinstatement upon appointment to specified positions, and prohibits those appointments from exceeding 960 hours in any fiscal year. Under existing law, a retired annuitant cannot receive any benefit, incentive, compensation in lieu of benefits, or any other form of compensation in addition to the prescribed hourly pay rate. This bill would clarify that the above-described work hour limits and ban on additional benefits apply only to retired annuitants working in a vacant position for a PERS contracting agency. (7) Existing law defines an employee for purposes of the Public Employees' Medical and Hospital Care Act, which governs health care coverage available to public employees. This definition includes an employee who is employed by a contracting agency, including an officer or official of a contracting agency, as defined, if that officer or official participates in the employer's retirement system. This bill would revise that definition to include only those employees who are employed by a contracting agency and participate in a publicly funded retirement system provided by that agency, as well as officers or officials of a contracting agency. The bill would also revise that definition by including officers or officials of a contracting agency regardless of whether those officers or officials participate in the employer's retirement system.