County employees retirement: benefits.

The County Employees Retirement Law of 1937 (CERL) authorizes counties to establish retirement systems pursuant to its provisions in order to provide pension benefits to county, city, and district employees and their beneficiaries. The CERL provides for a defined retirement benefit based upon credited service, final compensation, and age at retirement subject to specified formulas relating to membership classification. The California Public Employees' Pension Reform Act of 2013 (PEPRA) requires a public retirement system, as defined, including county and district retirement systems created pursuant to CERL, to modify its pension plan or plans to comply with the act and, among other provisions, establishes new limits of pensionable compensation that may not be exceeded whenever pensionable compensation is used in the calculation of a benefit. PEPRA defines pensionable compensation for purposes of its provisions. This bill would clarify that the definition of final compensation for members whose services is on a tenure that is temporary, seasonal, intermittent, or part time in the CERL, as described, also applies to those members meeting the same service criteria who are subject to PEPRA. The CERL provides that for a member who is subject to PEPRA for all or any portion of his or her membership in the county retirement system, final compensation means the highest average pensionable compensation earned by the member during a period of at least 36 consecutive months, immediately preceding his or her retirement or last separation from service if earlier, or during any other period of 36 consecutive months designated by the member. This bill would require, when determining final compensation for a member subject to PEPRA who does not have 3 consecutive years of earned pensionable compensation due to an absence, the compensation for any absence to be based on the pensionable compensation of the position held by the member immediately prior to the absence. PEPRA requires a public employee, including one who is elected or appointed to a public office, who is convicted of any state or federal felony for conduct arising out of, or in the performance of, his or her official duties in pursuit of the office or appointment, or in connection with obtaining salary, disability retirement, service retirement, or other benefits, to forfeit retirement benefits earned or accrued from the earliest date of the commission of the felony to the forfeiture date, as specified. This bill would make a conforming change to the CERL to specify that a person ceases to be a member for any portion of his or her service as an elected public officer or as a public employee that is forfeited under those circumstances. Under the CERL, except as otherwise specified, a board of supervisors or the governing body of a district may require that members pay all or part of the contributions of a member or employer, or both, for any retirement benefits provided under the CERL, and designates those payments as employee contributions. Existing law requires the contributions to be uniform either (1) with respect to all members of a recognized bargaining unit or (2) within each of the following classifications: local miscellaneous members, local police officers, local firefighters, county peace officers, and all local safety members other than local police officers, local firefighters, and county peace officers and classifications covered pursuant to specified provisions in PEPRA. This bill would revise that latter provision to require the contributions to be uniform either (1) with respect to all members of a recognized bargaining unit or (2) all members within each of the following categories: nonsafety or safety members referenced pursuant to specified provisions in PEPRA. The CERL requires specified death benefits, benefits in lieu of death benefits, and lump-sum benefits paid to surviving spouses of deceased members to be calculated using the annual compensation earned by the deceased, as provided. This bill would instead require those benefits to be calculated using the pensionable compensation earned by the deceased member, for a member subject to PEPRA. The CERL allows certain benefits to members who reenter county service after an absence from serving in the Armed Forces, and requires the contributions for those benefits to be calculated or determined using his or her compensation earnable at the commencement of the absence. This bill would instead require those contributions to be calculated or determined using the pensionable compensation earned at the commencement of the absence for a member subject to PEPRA. The CERL authorizes the governing board of the county or district to elect to contribute for any member who reenters county service after an absence from serving in the Armed Forces amounts equal to the contributions which would have been made by the member and the employer to the system on the basis of compensation earnable at the commencement of the absence, as specified. This bill would provide that the authorization does not apply to a member subject to PEPRA.