A resolution to propose to the people of the State of California an amendment to the Constitution of the State, by amending and adding subdivision (h) of Section 17 of Article XVI thereof, relating to public employees' retirement.

Existing statutory law establishes various public agency retirement systems, including the Public Employees' Retirement System, the State Teachers' Retirement System, the Judges' Retirement System II, and various county retirement systems pursuant to the County Employees Retirement Law of 1937, among others, and these systems provide defined pension benefits to public employees based on age, service credit, and amount of final compensation. The California Constitution permits a city or county to adopt a charter for purposes of its governance that supersedes general laws of the state in regard to specified subjects, including compensation of city or county employees. The California Constitution establishes the University of California as a public trust with full powers of organization and government, subject only to specified limitations. Under their respective independent constitutional authority, charter cities and counties and the University of California may establish retirement systems. The California Public Employees Pension Reform Act of 2013 (PEPRA) generally requires the retirement systems to which it applies to modify their provisions to conform with its requirements. PEPRA excepts from its provisions retirement systems established by charter cities and counties and the University of California. PEPRA requires that any enhancement to a public employee's retirement formula or retirement benefit adopted on or after January 1, 2013, apply only to service performed on or after the operative date of the enhancement and prohibits its application to service performed prior to that date. This measure would require, with respect to any public retirement systems, that any enhancement to a public employee's retirement formula or retirement benefit, adopted on or after the measure's effective date, apply only to service performed on and after the operative date of the enhancement and shall not be applied to any service performed prior to the operative date of the change. The measure would specify how changes in membership classification or changes in employment are to be applied in this context. The measure would provide that specified cost-of-living adjustments are not enhancements of retirement benefits.