Public employees: retirement and health benefits.

(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 vests the management and control of the PERS in the Board of Administration of the PERS. Existing law requires the board, in addition to any other reports it is required to make, to annually file a separate report with the Governor and the Legislature on all matters under its jurisdiction. This bill would repeal that requirement and make other conforming changes. (2) PERL specifies that a person ceases to be a member of PERS if the person has less than 5 years of service credit and no accumulated contributions in the retirement fund at the time of termination of service, as specified. This bill would provide that a member who is subject to specified provisions also ceases to be a member of PERS if the person has less than 10 years of service credit and no accumulated contributions in the retirement fund at the time of termination of service, and would make related conforming changes. (3) PERL prescribes different benefit formulas referred to as First Tier and Second Tier. Existing law provides that a state member who elected a calculation of a service retirement allowance based upon a specified computation of First Tier and Second Tier service shall be retired for service upon written application to the board if he or she has attained 50 years of age and is credited with 5 years of state service. This bill would specify that this provision applies to a state member, as described above, who is subject to a certain benefit formula available to Second Tier members who became members of the system before January 1, 2013. (4) PERL provides that if a correction of the amount of compensation received by a member that is reported to the system requires additional employer contributions to be paid to the system, the contributions shall be computed using the employer rate in effect at the time of the adjustment. This bill would instead provide that the employer contribution shall be computed using the employer contribution rate in effect at the time that the compensation requiring adjustment was earned. (5) PERL requires that an election, revocation, or change of retirement benefits be made prior to the making of the first payment on account of any retirement allowance, or any retirement allowance following a change in retirement status. This bill would allow an election, revocation, or change of election to be made within 30 calendar days after the making of the first payment. (6) PERL requires the board to conduct a study to examine the feasibility and cost-effectiveness of creating a single statewide health care pool that would cover all public school employees. This bill would repeal that requirement. (7) Existing law establishes the Judges' Retirement System II which provides retirement benefits to elected judges. Existing law authorizes a judge to elect, revoke, or change a previous election of benefits in a writing filed with the system prior to the making of the first payment on account of the retirement allowance. This bill would require those authorized elections, revocations, and changes to be made within 30 calendar days after the making of the first payment. (8) Existing law provides that if a retired judge becomes entitled to any salary for assignment to a court by the Chairperson of the Judicial Council after retirement for disability, the retirement allowance otherwise payable pursuant to the Judges' Retirement System II Law shall, during the time he or she is entitled to receive that salary or other compensation, be reduced by the amount of that salary or compensation. This bill would require, except as provided, a person who is retired for service or disability under the system to reinstate from retirement and again become a member of the system if he or she is appointed or elected to serve as a judge. (9) The bill would make other conforming, and technical, nonsubstantive changes.