Public employee benefits.

(1) Existing law provides that the Public Employees' Retirement System (PERS) is governed by its board of administration (board) and prescribes the composition of the board. Existing law requires the retirement fund of PERS to reimburse an employing agency that employs an elected member of the board and that employs a person to replace the member during attendance at meetings of the board, among other times, for the direct and reasonable costs incurred by employing a replacement. This bill would recast these provisions to provide that the employing agency be reimbursed, as specified, without regard to whether it replaces the elected member. (2) Existing law requires that a patrol member of PERS who is subject to specified benefit formulas be retired in the calendar month succeeding that in which he or she attains 60 years of age. This bill, until January 1, 2018, would except from this requirement a Commissioner of the California Highway Patrol, as specified, who was appointed on or after January 1, 2008. (3) Existing law authorizes the board to sell exchange-traded call options only through an exchange, and only with respect to stock owned by the system, as specified. This bill would repeal these provisions. (4) Existing law authorizes a member, in lieu of the retirement allowance for his or her life alone, to elect, or to revoke or change a previous election, to have the actuarial equivalent of his or her retirement allowance, as specified, applied to a lesser retirement allowance, in accordance with one of several optional settlements. Existing law authorizes a member who previously elected to receive one of certain optional settlements involving a life contingency of the beneficiary, and who has a qualifying event, as specified, to make a new election within 12 months after the occurrence of the qualifying event. Existing law requires the member to name a new beneficiary for this purpose. This bill would authorize a member who exercises the election described above on and after January 1, 2014, to name the same beneficiary as previously designated and requires that the resulting benefit under these circumstances otherwise satisfy applicable existing law requirements. (5) Existing law permits a person entitled to a benefit from PERS to request that payment be made by an electronic fund transfer, as specified. Existing law prohibits the board from sending a copy of benefit payment information to any person who has had payment made by electronic fund transfer or by mail, as specified, if the board has received a written request from that person that it not be sent. This bill would authorize the board to make available, in a manner it determines appropriate, copies of the monthly benefit payment information electronically and by mail. The bill would require the board, if it does not elect to mail copies of this payment information, as specified, to all or some of the people receiving monthly benefit payments, to notify people of their right to request that a copy of the benefit payment information be mailed. The bill would require the board to mail the information upon receiving a written request to do so. (6) Existing law, the Public Employees' Medical and Hospital Care Act (PEMHCA) , authorizes the board to enter into contracts with carriers offering health benefit plans or with entities offering services relating to the administration of health benefit plans. Existing law authorizes the board to contract for, or approve, health benefit plans exclusively for the employees and annuitants of the state and contracting agencies. Existing law defines an employee for these purposes and provides that a person who is an intermittent or irregular employee is not an employee. Existing law authorizes a contracting agency and its employees and annuitants to elect to be subject to PEMHCA upon filing with the board a resolution of its governing body, as specified. Existing law authorizes the board, by regulation, to establish requirements for a contracting agency that elects to become subject to PEMHCA. Existing law creates the Public Employees' Health Care Fund to fund health benefit plans administered by the board. Existing law provides that the fund is continuously appropriated and consists of, among other things, health plan premiums paid by contracting agencies, the state, and enrolled employees. Existing law creates the Public Employees' Contingency Reserve Fund, and various accounts within that fund, which are continuously appropriated, for the receipt of funds for certain purposes relating to PEMHCA, including for payments made by contracting agencies for health care premiums. This bill would revise the definition of employee to include an individual who would not otherwise qualify but who meets the definition of a full-time employee provided in specified federal law and is designated as an employee by the state or a contracting agency. By providing for increased contributions to a continuously appropriated fund, this bill would make an appropriation. The bill would provide that a contracting agency and its employees and annuitants may obtain a health benefit plan, as defined, subject to board approval of a resolution submitted by the governing body. The bill would authorize the board to refuse to contract with, or to agree to an amendment proposed by, any contracting agency for benefit provisions that are not specifically authorized by PEMHCA and that the board determines would adversely affect the administration of this system. Among other things, the bill would permit the board to require the contracting agency to enter into a contract with the board in this regard. The bill would require that the approval of the contract be by affirmative vote of a majority of the members of the relevant governing body. (7) The County Employees Retirement Law of 1937 prescribes a comprehensive set of rights and benefits for county and district employees who are members of a retirement system subject to that law and establishes retirement boards for the administration of those systems. Existing law authorizes a retirement board to promulgate regulations regarding the administration of benefits and specifically authorizes regulations for the use and acceptance of a document requiring a signature that is submitted by a member using an electronic signature, as specified. This bill would permit a retirement board to promulgate regulations regarding the use of recorded telephone communications for the processing of authorized transactions affecting a member's account if the board approves procedures adequate to protect the member and the system, as specified.