Chapter 34. Administration Of The District Retirement Salary Plan of California Education Code >> Division 1. >> Title 1. >> Part 13. >> Chapter 34.
(a) All payments from the district retirement fund shall be
made in the same manner as payments from school district funds but
shall be subject to approval of the district retirement board.
Warrants drawn on the fund shall be signed by at least one member of
the district retirement board who shall be designated by the board.
(b) The duties imposed upon the county treasurer shall be a part
of his or her official duties, for the faithful performance of which
he or she shall be liable upon his or her official bond.
(a) Any other provisions of law to the contrary
notwithstanding, whenever any retirement benefits under a district
retirement system payable solely by reason of death of the retired
member to his or her estate, heir or beneficiary have been unclaimed
for a period of four years from the date of notification, by the
district retirement system, by means of United States mail, to the
estate, heir or beneficiary, such funds shall revert to and become a
part of the contributions of the district and shall be applied to
reduce the cost to the taxpayers of the district maintaining the
retirement system.
(b) The district retirement system may at any time after reversion
of these benefits to the district and upon receipt of proper
information satisfactory to it, return from district contributions,
an amount equal to that which had, on account of the deceased member,
reverted to the district.
(a) Notwithstanding any other provision of law, whenever any
warrant drawn in payment of contributions or accumulated
contributions or benefits under a district retirement system, remains
unclaimed or the claimant cannot be found, the proceeds of the
warrant shall be redeposited in the respective fund, or funds, from
which they were derived, and held for the claimant, without further
accumulation of interest, and the redeposit shall not operate to
reinstate the membership of the claimant in the district retirement
system. If the proceeds, whether heretofore or hereafter redeposited,
are not claimed within four years after the date of redeposit, they
shall revert to and become a part of the contributions of the
district and shall be applied to reduce the cost to the taxpayers of
the district maintaining the retirement system and on account of
which the contributions were made.
(b) The provisions of this section shall apply to warrants drawn
under a district retirement system and that would become void under
Section 85270.
(c) The district retirement system may at any time, after the
reversion of proceeds to the district maintaining the retirement
system, and upon receipt of proper information satisfactory to it,
return from district contributions, an amount equal to those
proceeds, to the credit of the claimant to be administered in the
manner prescribed under the district retirement system.
(d) The deposit in those funds of the proceeds of unclaimed and
unpaid warrants prior to September 7, 1955, in accordance with the
procedure specified in this section, is hereby validated, ratified,
and confirmed.
(a) If any benefit is payable by a district retirement
system to the estate of a deceased person, whether because the estate
is the beneficiary of the person or because no beneficiary was
designated or because an allowance payable to the person had accrued
and remained unpaid at the date of the death, and the estate would
not be administered if no amount were due from the system, then the
benefit shall be paid directly without procuring letters of
administration to the surviving next of kin of the deceased, or the
guardians of the survivors' estates, share and share alike. The
payment shall be made in the same order in which the following groups
are listed:
(1) Husband or wife.
(2) Children and issue of deceased children by right of
representation.
(3) Father and mother.
(4) Brothers and sisters.
(5) Nieces and nephews.
(b) Payment may also be made to persons in the groups listed in
subdivision (a) to the extent those persons are the only
beneficiaries under the last will and testament of a deceased former
member of a district retirement system, without the probate of the
will.
Except in the case where the deceased former member of a
district retirement system leaves a will, no payment shall be made to
persons included in any group specified in subdivision (a) of
Section 24803, if at the date of death of any person or persons to
whom any benefit is payable by a district retirement system there are
living persons in any of the groups preceding it, as listed. Payment
to the persons in any group, upon receipt from them of an affidavit
upon a form supplied by the system, that there were no surviving
individuals in the groups preceding it, or that they are one of the
beneficiaries in any group specified in subdivision (a) of Section
24803 under the will of the deceased former member, and that the
estate of the deceased will not be administered, is in full discharge
of the liability of the board and system on account of the death.
(a) Notwithstanding any other provision of law, whenever any
member of the district retirement system dies while in active
membership status, including those on a deferred membership status,
or within four months after the termination of the member's
employment in a status requisite for membership in the retirement
system, benefits payable at death, unless a claim by someone other
than the designated beneficiary or beneficiaries is filed with the
retirement system during the period provided in this section, shall
be paid to the beneficiary or beneficiaries designated by him on a
form provided by the retirement system and on file in the office of
the retirement system prior to the death of the member.
(b) Payment to a beneficiary or beneficiaries designated in the
form on file in the retirement system at the date of death by a
warrant drawn prior to any claim under a will or under community
property rights, shall constitute full discharge of any and all
liability of the district retirement board and retirement system by
reason of the member's death. The retirement system shall provide a
30-day claim period subsequent to notification of death before
drawing a warrant in favor of the designated beneficiary or
beneficiaries.
(a) A district retirement salary plan established under
Sections 24800 to 24812, inclusive, in any school district or
districts, in which the average daily attendance of all districts
combined is in excess of 200,000, governed by the same governing
board, may be discontinued by the governing board of the district or
districts, with the consent of the majority of the active members of
the system expressing their desires with respect to the
discontinuance of the plan evidenced in the manner the governing
board may prescribe. However, no discontinuance of any retirement
plan shall be effective for any purpose unless provision is made for
retirement allowances for active and retired employees of the
district as provided in subdivisions (b), (c), (d), and (e).
(b) (1) Active and retired employees of the district or districts
who otherwise would be members of the plan, other than teachers and
persons employed in a status requisite for membership in the State
Teachers' Retirement System or who were so employed prior to
retirement, shall be made members and beneficiaries, respectively, of
the Public Employees' Retirement System according to Part 3
(commencing with Section 20000) of Division 5 of Title 2 of the
Government Code, including transfer to the system of the accumulated
contributions of the employees, together with any other assets of the
plan as may be determined.
(2) With respect to persons who are members of the plan at its
discontinuance, it shall be provided in the contract making the
employees members of the Public Employees' Retirement System, that
their respective rates of contribution under the system shall be
based on the age at the nearest birthday on July 1, 1944, or at the
respective later effective dates of their membership in the plan, all
instead of the age at the nearest birthday at the effective date of
membership in the employees' system.
(3) Each employee of the district or districts who is included in
the contract, but who during all or part of his or her employment in
a status requisite for membership in the plan was not a member
thereof, because of his or her election under an available option, or
who failed to redeposit upon reentry into membership contributions
previously withdrawn, shall have the right to elect by written
document filed with the Board of Administration of the Public
Employees' Retirement System, at any time within 90 days after the
date upon which the notice of the right to make the election is
mailed by the system to the member's latest address on file in the
office of the system, and prior to the date of retirement, to
contribute to the system, subject to minimum payments fixed by the
board of administration, and in one or more sums, or in not to exceed
60 monthly payments, an amount which, when added to his or her
accumulated contributions, including interest, transferred as
required in paragraph (1), will make a total amount equal to the
accumulated contributions, including interest, that would have been
credited to him or her in the plan, if he or she had never elected
not to be a member thereof, or if he or she had redeposited the
withdrawn contributions upon reentry, as the case may be. The
employee shall pay to the Public Employees' Retirement System
interest on the unpaid balance of the amount payable to the system,
beginning with the date of discontinuance of the plan at the rate of
interest currently used from time to time under the system. If the
employee elects to make, and makes the contributions, and pays the
interest, but not otherwise, he or she shall receive credit under the
employees' system, as state service, for all the service rendered
while he or she was not a member of the plan, because of his or her
optional exclusion, or for all service upon which the withdrawn
contributions were based, and for the purpose of paragraph (2) shall
be considered as a member of the plan at its discontinuance and from
November 1, 1937, or later beginning date of the service. Regardless
of whether the contributions are made, the employee shall receive
credit for service with which he or she was credited or would have
been credited if he or she had been a member, as prior service under
the plan. The contributions under this paragraph shall be added to
and administered in the same manner as the contributions transferred
under paragraph (1).
(4) Service rendered by active employees, who are made members of
the Public Employees' Retirement System, prior to the assumption by
the district or districts of the function under which the service was
rendered, such as, but not limited to, cafeterias and student body
activities, shall be credited under the employees' system, provided
the service qualified for credit under the discontinued plan.
(5) The contract making the active employees members of the Public
Employees' Retirement System, shall include the employees with
respect to service rendered in a status in which they are not
eligible for membership in the State Teachers' Retirement System, as
provided in Section 20491 of the Government Code, and also with
respect to service rendered in a status in which they are eligible
for membership, but that is no longer credited under the retirement
system, and the service shall be credited in the same manner
applicable to service otherwise qualifying for credit.
(6) Retirement allowances being paid under the discontinued plan
to retired employees of the district or districts, who are made
beneficiaries of the Public Employees' Retirement System, shall be
changed by action of the governing board of the districts, effective
at the discontinuance of the plan, to retirement allowances
calculated on the basis of service used in the calculation of the
respective allowances under the plan, and average annual salary
earnable during the highest three consecutive years of creditable
service, calculated according to the methods used at the date of
discontinuance, under the plan in determining salary earnable, but
excluding any salary based on overtime as provided in Section 20025.2
of the Government Code, but otherwise according to the formulae
under the employees' system that apply to active employees who are
made members thereof. The changed allowances shall be paid to
beneficiaries for time commencing on the date they are made
beneficiaries of the employees' system. No allowance shall be reduced
by the change.
(7) If two or more districts under the control and management of a
single governing board are participants in the plan, one contract
between the board of administration and the governing board may
include all the districts. The governing board may apportion the
total contributions required under the contract, among the districts
on the basis of total salaries upon which the contributions are
computed, and on the basis of other pertinent information.
(8) Notwithstanding paragraph (1), the contract making active
employees members of the Public Employees' Retirement System, shall
include teachers and persons employed in a status requisite for
membership in the State Teachers' Retirement System, with respect to
service rendered in a status in which they would have been eligible
for membership in the Public Employees' Retirement System, if the
district or districts by which they were employed had been
participating in that system under Part 3 (commencing with Section
20000) of Division 5 of Title 2 of the Government Code. Contributions
deducted from salary earned by the employees in that service,
together with credited interest, and standing to the credit of the
employees at the effective date of discontinuance of the plan, shall
be subject to paragraph (1), in the same manner as they would have
been so subject if the employees had been employed at the date of the
discontinuance, in a status which was not requisite for membership
in the State Teachers' Retirement System. The employees shall be
members of the Public Employees' Retirement System with the same
effect, but only with respect to that service, as if they had been
employed in a status that would have qualified them for membership
under other paragraphs of this subdivision. The employees shall
continue in membership and shall be entitled to benefits in the same
manner as if they individually were credited with at least five
hundred dollars ($500) in accumulated contributions. In the
computation of the members' benefits under the Public Employees'
Retirement System, their compensation earnable while they are members
of the State Teachers' Retirement System shall be taken into
consideration.
(c) Notwithstanding Sections 35161, 35162, Article 1 (commencing
with Section 7000) of Chapter 1 of Part 5, Article 2 (commencing with
Section 10010) of Chapter 1 of Part 7, Article 1 (commencing with
Section 12500) of Chapter 5 of Part 8, this part, Article 5
(commencing with Section 32340) of Chapter 3 of Part 19, and Part 25
(commencing with Section 44000), contributions to the discontinued
district retirement plan made by teachers and other persons employed
by the district or districts in a status requisite for membership in
the State Teachers' Retirement System standing to their individual
credit at the date of discontinuance of the district retirement plan
shall be deposited in the Retirement Annuity Fund with credited
interest, to be applied on the amount due from the teachers, but not
to exceed the amount due. Likewise an amount equal to the actuarial
equivalent of the annuity portion of the retirement allowance to
which the respective retired teachers and other persons employed by
the district or districts, prior to retirement, in a status requisite
for membership in the State Teachers' Retirement System were
entitled under the plan, based on the interest rate and mortality
tables used in its determination, shall be deposited in the
Retirement Annuity Fund, to be applied on the amount due from the
respective retired teachers, but not to exceed the amount due. Any
excess of the contributions with credited interest or the actuarial
equivalents, as the case may be, over the respective amounts due
under those sections, shall be paid to the respective active and
retired teachers and other persons. Further amounts, if any, due
under those sections after the deposits, shall be paid to the
Retirement Annuity Fund by the respective active and retired teachers
and other persons. If any of the teachers or other persons who is
not retired, is not entitled to credit under the State Teachers'
Retirement System for all or part of his or her service credited
under the plan, or if any of the retired teachers or other persons is
not entitled to a retirement allowance from the system, either
before or after the discontinuance, the provisions of this
subdivision about contributions and credited interest or about the
actuarial equivalent of annuity portions of retirement allowances, as
the case may be, shall not apply to him or her with respect to
service that is not credited under the state system, until and unless
he or she becomes entitled to credit for that service or to an
allowance from the state system, based on service that was credited
to him or her under the discontinued plan. The balance of the assets
held in the various funds of the discontinued district retirement
plan after the transfers, deposits, and payments required by this
section, or after establishment of reserves from which the transfers,
deposits, and payments shall be made, shall be delivered to the
district or districts in which the plan is discontinued.
(d) The district or districts in which the district retirement
plan is discontinued shall pay monthly to teachers and other persons
employed by the district or districts, prior to retirement, in a
status requisite for membership in the State Teachers' Retirement
System who were retired prior to the date of the discontinuance an
amount equal to the amount by which the retirement allowance to which
any of the retired teachers or other persons was entitled under the
plan exceeds the increase in the teacher's or other person's
retirement allowance under the State Teachers' Retirement System
resulting from the discontinuance. If the amount payable to any
teacher or other person, under the previous sentence, is less than
two dollars ($2), the district or districts may pay, in lieu of that
amount, one amount that shall be actuarially equivalent to the
monthly amount thereafter payable, according to the interest rate and
mortality table used in the determination of the teacher's or other
person's retirement allowance under the district retirement plan. The
payment of the actuarially equivalent amount shall discharge fully
the district's liability to the teacher or other person under this
subdivision. The arrangement under which the amounts are paid by the
district shall not be considered to be a local retirement system for
the purposes of Chapter 1 (commencing with Section 22000) to Chapter
19 (commencing with Section 23200), inclusive, and Chapter 21.5
(commencing with Section 23700), nor shall the amount be taken into
account in the calculation of retirement allowances under the State
Teachers' Retirement System. If any of the teachers or other persons
is not entitled to a retirement allowance from the State Teachers'
Retirement System, either before or after discontinuance, the
district or districts shall pay monthly to him or her, an amount
equal to his or her retirement allowance under the plan prior to the
discontinuance. If any teacher or other person has left the service
of the district or districts, and is in a status under the plan,
which if continued would qualify him or her for a retirement
allowance without his or her return to that service, but is in a
status that would otherwise not qualify him or her for retirement
under the state system, the district or districts shall pay monthly
to the teacher or other person, beginning at the date upon which he
or she would have qualified for service retirement under the plan, an
amount equal to the retirement allowance for which he or she would
have qualified if the plan had not been discontinued. If any teacher
or other person has credit under the plan for service that does not
qualify for credit under either the State Teachers' Retirement System
or Public Employees' Retirement System, the district or districts
shall pay monthly to the teacher or other person, beginning on the
date upon which he or she would have qualified for service retirement
under the plan, an amount equal to the retirement allowance for
which he or she would have qualified on the basis of that service if
the plan had not been discontinued. If the individual at a later date
becomes entitled to a retirement allowance from the state system,
based on service that was credited to him or her under the
discontinued plan, the monthly payments shall cease, and he or she
shall become subject to subdivision (c), and the first four sentences
of this subdivision, in the same manner as he or she would have been
subject, if he or she had been entitled to a retirement allowance at
the date of discontinuance, but calculation of actuarial equivalents
and amounts payable shall be made as of the later date.
(e) If any person who was retired prior to the discontinuance from
a position requisite for membership in the State Teachers'
Retirement System, under a district retirement salary plan that is
discontinued pursuant to this section, elected either under the plan
or under the system, but not under both, to have the retirement
allowance modified according to an option under which he or she would
receive a smaller allowance and provide a benefit for his or her
beneficiary, the person shall have the right, to be exercised not
later than 60 days after the discontinuance of the plan, to change
his or her election under the State Teachers' Retirement System with
respect to the options. Any computations of actuarial equivalent
under a changed election shall be made as of the date of
discontinuance of the plan, and no adjustment shall be included in
the computation on account of retirement allowance payments made
prior to that date.
The balance of the assets delivered to the district pursuant
to subdivision (c) of Section 24806, after the transfers, deposits
and payments required by that section, or after establishment of
reserves from which those deposits and payments shall be made, shall
be allocated and distributed as follows:
(a) Sixty-five percent of the balance shall be distributed to the
undistributed reserve of the general fund of the district to be
reduced to cash as necessary and appropriated in any year by majority
vote of the governing board. Until the balance of the assets has
been reduced to cash, the governing board may invest and reinvest the
assets in securities legal for the investment of funds of the State
Teachers' Retirement System when in the judgment of the governing
board any sale and reinvestment is advisable. Ten percent of this
amount shall be used only for maintenance operation.
(b) Twenty percent of the balance shall be transferred to a
special account in the undistributed reserve of the district's
general fund to be reduced to cash as necessary in order to be used
only for the purpose of reducing the tax collected pursuant to former
Section 23401, as it read on January 1, 1979, in order to provide
the contributions required by Section 22950 to the Teacher's
Retirement Fund. In the event that the special account is not wholly
distributed for the purpose of making the contribution, the balance
in the special account shall be released to the undistributed
reserve. Until the balance of the assets has been reduced to cash,
the governing board may invest and reinvest the assets in securities
legal for the investment of funds of the State Teachers' Retirement
System when in the judgment of the governing board any sale and
reinvestment is advisable.
(c) (1) Fifteen percent of the balance shall be held intact by the
district in an annuity reserve fund from which shall be provided a
supplementary annuity at time of retirement under any California
public retirement system to or on behalf of those members of the
local district retirement system who were on the active roll or
members on the retired roll of such local district retirement system
as of June 30, 1972, and those members added to the active and
retired rolls between June 30, 1972, and any later date of
discontinuance, and those probationary or permanent certificated
employees of the district holding memberships in California public
retirement systems other than the local district retirement system
who are making contributions to those systems on June 30, 1972, or on
any later date of discontinuance. The supplement annuity may be paid
in lump sum or in installments for the life of the person eligible,
or his or her beneficiary, after his or her retirement.
(2) No participant in the annuity reserve fund shall have vested
rights to the benefits of this annuity reserve fund until he or she
has continued in active service for a period of five years from the
date of discontinuance of the local district retirement system,
except participants who have separated from service by reason of
retirement, including deferred retirement, or death.
(3) An account shall be opened in the name of each person eligible
to participate in the benefits of the annuity reserve fund to which
shall be credited his or her share of the annuity reserve fund. The
individual participant's share of this fund shall bear the same ratio
to the total of this fund as his or her annuity savings
contributions, including interest earned, to the retirement system,
to which he or she is making annuity contributions as of June 30,
1972, or any later date of discontinuance, or, if a retired member,
the date of retirement prior to June 30, 1972, bears to the total
annuity savings contributions, including interest earned, of all such
participants in the retirement systems to which they are making
contributions at the date of discontinuance, including total
contributions to the local district retirement system previously made
by living members on the retired roll. The fund shall include
principal and interest in the account of any participant forfeited
because the participant separated from service, except by reason of
retirement, including deferred retirement, or death, within five
years from June 30, 1972, or other date of discontinuance. The
forfeiture shall be treated as earnings of the fund.
(4) As of June 30 each year, and on any other dates the annuity
reserve fund board may determine, the earnings of the fund less
administrative expense shall be credited to the accounts of the
remaining participants in the annuity reserve fund on the ratio that
the participant's individual account balance bears to the total
balance of the annuity reserve fund. The cost of administering the
fund shall be charged against the assets of the fund, as approved by
the governing board of the school district.
(5) When a participant separates from service, the earnings since
the preceding date on which the earnings of the fund, less
administrative expenses, were credited to the accounts of the
participants, shall remain in the fund. Any member whose accumulated
contributions to the local retirement system exceed the amount
required by law to be deposited by the member in the State Teachers'
Retirement System's Annuity Fund upon discontinuance of the local
system may deposit to his or her credit all or part of the excess
amount in the annuity reserve fund.
(6) The governing board of the school district that maintained the
discontinued local district retirement system shall establish an
annuity reserve fund board of not more than seven members, the
majority of whom shall be composed of certificated employees who are
participants in the annuity reserve fund. The certificated employees
on the annuity reserve fund board shall be elected by participants in
the annuity reserve fund. The annuity reserve fund board shall have
the authority to make rules and regulations necessary for the
management of the annuity reserve fund in accordance with modern
business practice. The local district retirement board shall continue
to function as the annuity reserve board pending its establishment.
(7) Except as otherwise restricted by the California Constitution
or by law, the annuity reserve fund board may, in its discretion,
invest or reinvest the assets of the fund through the purchase,
holding, or sale thereof of any investment, financial instrument, or
financial transaction, if the investment, financial instrument, or
financial transaction is prudent in the informed opinion of the
annuity reserve fund board.
(8) All securities and cash of the annuity reserve fund shall be
held in a trust fund in the county treasury. The county treasurer, as
one of his or her official duties, shall be a member ex officio of
the annuity reserve fund board established to invest the assets of
this fund.
(9) Any funds raised for the support of the local district
retirement system and not appropriated to any specific account shall
be transferred to the annuity reserve fund. All payments from the
district's annuity reserve fund shall be made in the same manner as
payments from school district funds. The annuity reserve fund board
may, at its discretion, request the district governing board to hold
an election among existing annuity reserve fund participants as to
whether the board should distribute existing funds in the annuity
fund. The annuity reserve fund board may prescribe all rules and
regulations regarding such an election and may distribute the funds
if a majority of the members so elect.
Any certificated employee of a district having an annuity
reserve fund may enter into an amendment of his or her employment
contract for the purpose of effecting a reduction in salary. The
reduction shall be deposited by the employer, at the employee's
request, in the district's annuity reserve fund. The deposits shall
be used to provide the employee an annuity within the meaning of
Section 403(b) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 (26 U.S.C.A. Sec.
403(b)).
Notwithstanding Section 24807, the annuity reserve fund
board may adopt rules allowing participants who have reached 70 years
of age to withdraw their benefits.
The governing board may provide that members of the annuity
reserve fund board be paid one hundred dollars ($100) for each
meeting, not to exceed one meeting each month, if they are not being
paid by the governing board for any other assignment at the time of
the meeting. The compensation shall be a charge against the annuity
reserve fund.
(a) Notwithstanding Section 24806, persons other than
teachers and other persons employed in a status requisite for
membership in the State Teachers' Retirement System, who are active
or retired members of a district retirement salary plan established
under Sections 24800 to 24812, inclusive, in any school district or
districts in which the average daily attendance of all districts
combined is in excess of 200,000, governed by the same governing
board, may be transferred by the governing board of the district or
districts, with the consent of the majority of the active members of
the plan expressing their desires with respect to the transfer
evidenced in the manner the governing board prescribes. However, no
transfer of the active and retired members shall be effective for any
purpose unless provision is made for retirement allowances for
active and retired employees of the district as provided in
subdivision (b).
(b) (1) Active and retired employees, including future employees,
of the district or districts who otherwise would be members of the
plan, persons who are members of the district's retirement salary
plan, and persons who were employees on June 30, 1957, and who
attained age 65 years or over during the 12 months immediately
preceding July 1, 1957, other than teachers and persons employed in a
status requisite for membership in the State Teachers' Retirement
System or who were so employed prior to retirement, shall be made
members and beneficiaries, respectively, of the Public Employees'
Retirement System according to the provisions of Part 3 (commencing
with Section 20000) of Division 5 of Title 2 of the Government Code,
including transfer to the system of the accumulated contributions of
the members, together with the other assets of the plan as may be
determined. However, the total of the other assets transferred shall
not be greater than the portion of the reserves of the plan that is
allocable to the active and retired employees, as determined by
actuarial valuation. In the valuation the portion of the reserves
allocable to the active and retired employees proposed to be
transferred shall be determined as an amount which bears the same
ratio to the total reserves under the plan as the liabilities under
the plan on account of the active and retired employees bear to the
total liabilities under the plan on account of all active and retired
employees under the plan. On the effective date of the contract
making the active employees members of the Public Employees'
Retirement System, the employees shall cease to be members of the
plan, and neither they nor retired persons who are made beneficiaries
of the state system, shall be paid or have any right to any
allowance or other benefit under the plan for time beginning with the
effective date.
(2) With respect to persons who are members of the plan at the
transfer, it shall be provided in the contract making the employees
members of the Public Employees' Retirement System, that their
respective rates of contribution under the plan shall be based on the
age at the nearest birthday at July 1, 1944, or at the respective
later effective dates of their membership in the plan, all instead of
the age at the nearest birthday at the effective date of membership
in the employees' system.
(3) Each employee of the district or districts who is included in
the contract, but who during all or part of his or her employment in
a status requisite for membership in the plan was not a member
thereof, because of his or her election under an available option, or
who, while employed in a status not requisite for membership in the
plan, was a member of the State Teachers' Retirement System and was
contributing to that system, or who did not redeposit upon reentry
into membership contributions previously withdrawn, shall have the
right to elect by written document filed with the Board of
Administration of the Public Employees' Retirement System, at any
time within 90 days after the date upon which the notice of the right
to make the election is mailed by the system either to the member's
latest address on file in the office of the system, or to the office
of the governing board of the district or districts, and prior to the
date of retirement, to contribute to the system, subject to minimum
payments fixed by the board of administration, and in one or more
sums, or in not to exceed 60 monthly payments, an amount which, when
added to his or her accumulated contributions, including interest,
transferred as required in paragraph (1), will make a total amount
equal to the accumulated contributions, including interest, that
would have been credited to him or her in the plan, if he or she had
never elected not to be a member thereof, or if he or she had been a
member of the plan during the time he or she was a member of the
State Teachers' Retirement System and was contributing to the system,
or if he or she had redeposited the withdrawn contributions upon
reentry, as the case may be. The employee shall pay to the Public
Employees' Retirement System interest on the unpaid balance of the
amount payable to the system, beginning with the date of transfer, at
the rate of interest currently used from time to time under the
system. If the employee elects to make, and makes the contributions,
and pays the interest, but not otherwise, he or she shall receive
credit under the employees' system, as state service, for all the
service rendered while he or she was not a member of the plan,
because of his or her optional exclusion, or for service rendered
while he or she was contributing to the State Teachers' Retirement
System, provided the service is no longer credited under the teachers'
system, or for all service upon which the withdrawn contributions
were based, and for the purpose of paragraph (2) shall be considered
as a member of the plan at the transfer and from November 1, 1937, or
later beginning date of the service. Regardless of whether the
contributions are made, the employee shall receive credit for service
with which he or she was credited or would have been credited if he
or she had been a member, as prior service under the plan. The
contributions under this paragraph shall be added to and administered
in the same manner as the contributions transferred under paragraph
(1).
(4) Service rendered by active employees who are made members of
the Public Employees' Retirement System prior to or after the
assumption by the district or districts of the function under which
the service was rendered, but prior to the effective date of the
contract making active employees members, and the compensation for
which was paid wholly or in part from funds other than the funds of
the district or districts, shall be credited under the employees'
system, provided the service qualified for credit under the plan.
(5) The contract making the active employees members of the Public
Employees' Retirement System, shall include the employees with
respect to service rendered in a status in which they are not
eligible for membership in the State Teachers' Retirement System, as
provided in Section 20491 of the Government Code, and also with
respect to service rendered in a status in which they are eligible
for that membership, but that is no longer credited under the
teachers' retirement system, and the service shall be credited in the
manner applicable to service otherwise qualifying for credit.
(6) Retirement allowances being paid under the plan to retired
employees of the district or districts, who are made beneficiaries of
the Public Employees' Retirement System, shall be changed by action
of the governing board of the district, effective at the transfer, to
retirement allowances calculated on the basis of service used in the
calculation of the respective allowances under the plan, and average
annual salary earnable during the highest three consecutive years of
creditable service, calculated according to the methods used at the
date of transfer, under the plan in determining salary earnable, but
excluding any salary based on overtime as provided in Section 20025.2
of the Government Code, but otherwise according to the formulae
under the employees' system that apply to active employees who are
made members of the employees' system. The changed allowances shall
be paid to the beneficiaries for time commencing on the date they are
made beneficiaries of the employees' system. No allowance shall be
reduced by the change.
(7) If two or more districts under the control and management of a
single governing board are participants in the plan, one contract
between the board of administration and the governing board may
include all the districts. The governing board may apportion the
total contributions required under the contract, among the districts
on the basis of total salaries upon which the contributions are
computed, and on the basis of other pertinent information.
(8) The contract making these active employees members of the
Public Employees' Retirement System shall provide that the service
included in the calculation of the completed years of service as a
basis for the portion of the basic death benefit provided in
subdivision (b) of Section 21361 of the Government Code for persons
who were members of the plan at transfer, shall not be limited to
service under the Public Employees' Retirement System, but instead
that service rendered as members of the plan shall also be included.
If two or more districts have been included in one contract
between the Board of Administration of the Public Employees'
Retirement System, and the governing board of the districts, as
provided in paragraph (7) of subdivision (b) of Section 24810, and
if, since that inclusion, two or more of the districts have been
combined into a unified district, the unified district, by amendment
to the contract, may, notwithstanding Section 20580 of the Government
Code, be substituted for the districts so combined, and for all
purposes of the contract.
If two districts, one of which is a community college
district, have been included in one contract between the Board of
Administration of the Public Employees' Retirement System and the
governing board of the districts, as provided in paragraph (7) of
subdivision (b) of Section 24810, and thereafter members of the
governing board of the community college district are precluded by
law from serving as members of the governing body of the other
district, the contract shall be deemed a separate contract as to each
district. The Board of Administration of the Public Employees'
Retirement System shall determine the accumulated contributions held
for or as having been made by each district and its employees, and
shall credit the contributions to the respective contracts. Benefits
based on all service of an employee to the districts prior to the
date upon which employees' elections to serve the respective
districts are effective shall be a liability of the contract of the
district employing the person on the effective date. A person retired
prior to the effective date shall, for all purposes of this section,
be deemed an employee of the district other than the community
college district.
(a) The contract executed under Section 24810, and making
persons other than teachers and other persons employed in a status
requisite for membership in the State Teachers' Retirement System,
who are active or retired members of a district retirement salary
plan established under Sections 24800 to 24812, inclusive, members
and beneficiaries of the Public Employees' Retirement System, shall
be amended to include as members or beneficiaries, teachers and other
persons who were employed in a status requisite for membership in
the State Teachers' Retirement System, who ceased to be members of
the plan if it was discontinued, or if the plan was not discontinued,
who resign instead of retiring and are refunded their accumulated
contributions under that plan, or who retire or have retired under
the district plan and relinquish or have relinquished their right to
allowances from the plan with credit for service rendered in a status
in which they would have been eligible for membership in the Public
Employees' Retirement System, if the district or districts by which
they were employed had been participating in that system under Part 3
(commencing with Section 20000) of Division 5 of Title 2 of the
Government Code, but only if the service qualified for credit under
the plan and is not credited under any other retirement system.
(b) The service of a person who ceased to be a member, or resigns
or has resigned instead of retiring, or who relinquishes or has
relinquished, shall be administered under the contract in exactly the
same manner as that applied to service of persons who were retired
under the local retirement system at the effective date of that
contract, and were made beneficiaries, or who were not retired and
were made members of the system on that date. The retirement
allowances being received by the relinquishing persons, on account of
service that would have been credited under the Public Employees'
Retirement System as stated, shall be adjusted in the same manner
that allowances were adjusted under paragraph (6) of subdivision (b)
of Section 24810. Any member who is credited with service in
accordance with this section, shall pay to the Public Employees'
Retirement System, at times and in the manner fixed by the board of
administration of that system, an amount equal to contributions with
interest, that the member received as a refund from the plan, and
that were based on service credited, plus interest from the date of
refund to the date of the payment, at the interest rate in effect
under the system at the date of payment. Contributions required of
the district or districts shall be determined by proper valuation,
and the contributions set forth in the contract shall be adjusted
accordingly.
(c) A retirement allowance based on the credited service shall be
payable and retirement shall become effective, under the Public
Employees' Retirement System beginning on the first day of the month
next following the effective date of this section, in the case of a
person who then is retired under the State Teachers' Retirement
System, or otherwise on the later effective date of the member's
retirement under the teachers' system. The allowance shall be based
on the person's age when the allowance begins, and on the same
average salary as that upon which his or her allowance under the
State Teachers' Retirement System, is based.