AB 1971

Bill Subjects

Abstract

The County Employees Retirement Law of 1937 (CERL) authorizes counties to establish retirement systems pursuant to its provisions in order to provide pension and other benefits to county and district employees. CERL generally vests responsibility for management of a retirement system created pursuant to its provisions in a board of retirement (board) . CERL authorizes a member who returns to active service following an uncompensated leave of absence on account of illness or parental leave to receive service credit for the period of the absence upon the payment of the contributions, as specified. CERL prescribes limits on these benefits and processes for making contributions. CERL authorizes the provision of service credit to members in other specified instances while generally providing that a person is not entitled to service credit for time the person was not in service. This bill would allow a member who returns to active service following an uncompensated leave of absence because of the serious illness of a family member when the absence is eligible for coverage, as specified, to receive service credit for the period of the absence, upon the payment of the member and employer contributions that would have been paid during that period, together with the interest that would have been earned. The bill would prescribe requirements for, and limits on, this benefit and would condition its operation on approval by resolution, as specified, by the county board of supervisors. This bill would authorize the board to grant members who are subject to a temporary mandatory furlough the same service credit and compensation earnable or pensionable compensation to which the members would have been entitled in the absence of the temporary mandatory furlough. The bill would authorize the board to condition this grant on specified factors. CERL generally prohibits a member retired from service from being paid for service rendered to a county or district after retirement, subject to certain exceptions, and prescribes requirements for reinstatement into a retirement system upon reemployment. CERL and the California Public Employees' Pension Reform Act of 2013 authorize reemployment of, and service by, retired members in certain capacities after retirement without reinstatement into the applicable retirement system, and prescribe limits on this service. This bill would authorize a person who is retired and receiving a retirement benefit from a county system to serve as a nonsalaried member without reinstatement for service on a part-time board or commission, as specified. The bill would prohibit a retired person acting in this capacity from acquiring benefits, service credit, or retirement rights with respect to the service, but would authorize the receipt of any per diem that is authorized to all members of the board or commission. CERL regulates disability retirements and authorizes a retirement board to grant a service retirement allowance pending the determination of the entitlement to disability retirement. If a member is found eligible for disability retirement, CERL requires that appropriate adjustments be made in the member's retirement allowance retroactive to the effective date of their disability retirement. CERL prohibits this authorization from being construed to authorize a member to receive more than one type of retirement allowance for the same period of time or to entitle a beneficiary to receive benefits which the beneficiary would not otherwise have been entitled to receive. This bill would apply specified provisions in this regard to a member retired for service who subsequently files an application for disability retirement and, if the member is found to be eligible for disability retirement, would require appropriate adjustments to be made in the retirement allowance retroactive to the effective date of the disability retirement. CERL authorizes a member or a retired member, until the first payment of a retirement allowance is made, to elect to have the actuarial equivalent of a retirement allowance, as of the date of retirement, applied to a lesser retirement allowance payable throughout life in accordance with specified optional settlements. This bill would authorize a member retired for service who is subsequently granted a disability retirement to change the type of optional or unmodified allowance that they elected at the time the service retirement was granted, as specified.