24806
. (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previously withdrawn, shall have the right to elect by written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.