CALIFORNIA SB 541
Chapter 379
BILL NUMBER: SB 541 CHAPTERED 08/04/95 CHAPTER 379 FILED WITH SECRETARY OF STATE AUGUST 4, 1995 APPROVED BY GOVERNOR AUGUST 3, 1995 PASSED THE ASSEMBLY JULY 17, 1995 PASSED THE SENATE JUNE 1, 1995 AMENDED IN SENATE MAY 31, 1995 INTRODUCED BY Senator Hughes FEBRUARY 21, 1995 An act to repeal and add Part 3 (commencing with Section 20000) and Part 3.4 (commencing with Section 21750) of Division 5 of Title 2 of the Government Code, relating to the Public Employees' Retirement SystemLEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST SB 541, Hughes. Public Employees' Retirement Law.
The Public Employees' Retirement Law establishes the Public Employees' Retirement System, and sets forth the provisions for its administration and the delivery of benefits to its members.
The bill would reorganize those provisions and would state the intent of the Legislature that the bill would not make any substantive change in the law. It would also provide that any act enacted in 1995 at the 1995-96 Regular Session of the Legislature shall prevail over this bill if there would otherwise be a conflict.
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
PART 3. PUBLIC EMPLOYEES' RETIREMENT SYSTEM CHAPTER 1. GENERAL PROVISIONS AND DEFINITIONS Article 1. General Provisions 20000. This part may be cited as the Public Employees' Retirement Law.
20001. The purpose of this part is to effect economy and efficiency in the public service by providing a means whereby employees who become superannuated or otherwise incapacitated may, without hardship or prejudice, be replaced by more capable employees, and to that end provide a retirement system consisting of retirement compensation and death benefits.
20002. The Public Employees' Retirement System created by Chapter 700 of the Statutes of 1931, as amended, is continued in existence under this part. This system is a unit of the State and Consumer Services Agency.
20003. Unless the context otherwise requires, the definitions and general provisions set forth in this chapter govern the construction of this part.
Article 2. Definitions 20010. "Accumulated additional contributions" means the sum of all additional contributions standing to the credit of a member's individual account, and interest thereon.
20011. "Accumulated contributions" means accumulated normal contributions plus any accumulated additional contributions standing to the credit of a member's account.
20012. "Accumulated normal contributions" means the sum of all normal contributions standing to the credit of a member's individual account, and interest thereon.
20013. "Actuarial equivalent" means a benefit of equal value when computed upon the basis of the mortality tables adopted and the actuarial interest rate fixed by the board.
20014. "Actuarial interest rate" means the interest rate fixed by the board for purposes of actuarial valuation of the assets and liabilities of this system.
20015. "Actuary" means an actuary regularly employed on a full-time or part-time basis by the board.
20016. "Additional contributions" means contributions made by members and their employers in addition to their normal contributions under Article 2 (commencing with Section 20710) of Chapter 8.
20017. "Annual interest rate" means the net earnings rate reduced by 110 basis points for purposes of crediting interest.
20018. "Annuity" means payments for life derived from contributions made by a member.
20019. "Beneficiary" means any person or corporation designated by a member, a retired member, or by statute to receive a benefit payable under this part, on account of the death of a member or a retired member. A member or retired member may also designate the member's estate as a beneficiary.
All designations of an estate as a beneficiary, which would have been valid if this section, as amended by Chapter 376 of the Statutes of 1981, had been in effect at the time the designation was made, are hereby validated.
20020. "Benefit" means the retirement allowance, basic death benefit, limited death benefit, special death benefit, any monthly allowance for survivors of a member or retired person, the insurance benefit, the partial disability retirement program payment, or refund of accumulated contributions.
20021. "Board" means the Board of Administration of the Public Employees' Retirement System.
20022. "Contracting agency" means any public agency that has elected to have all or any part of its employees become members of this system and that has contracted with the board for that purpose.
20023. "County peace officer service" shall include service rendered in the sheriff's office of a city and county in positions that were subsequently reclassified as positions within the definition of "county peace officer." 20024. "Current service" means all state service rendered by a member on and after the date upon which he or she first became a member, service in employment while not a member but after persons employed in the status of the member were eligible for membership, and public service designated as current service under Section 21034.
20025. "Dependent," in reference to any benefit provided, upon the death of a member, for a surviving dependent parent, or parent dependent upon the member for support, shall mean receipt of at least one-half of the parent's support from the member at the time of the member's death determined according to rules of the board.
20026. "Disability" and "incapacity for performance of duty" as a basis of retirement, mean disability of permanent or extended and uncertain duration, as determined by the board, or in the case of a local safety member by the governing body of the contracting agency employing the member, on the basis of competent medical opinion.
20027. "Disability," "disabled," or "incapacitated" means, with respect to qualification for an allowance payable to a surviving child, inability to engage in any substantial gainful occupation by reason of any physical or mental impairment that is determined by the board, on the basis of competent medical or psychiatric opinion, to be of permanent or extended and uncertain duration.
20028. "Employee" means:
(a) Any person in the employ of the state, a county superintendent of schools, or the university whose compensation, or at least that portion of his or her compensation that is provided by the state, a county superintendent of schools, or the university, is paid out of funds directly controlled by the state, a county superintendent of schools, or the university, excluding all other political subdivisions, municipal, public and quasi-public corporations.
"Funds directly controlled by the state" includes funds deposited in and disbursed from the State Treasury in payment of compensation, regardless of their source.
(b) Any person in the employ of any contracting agency, and for the purposes of this part, and where a county or city and county becomes a contracting agency, employees and attaches of the superior court for that county or city and county shall be considered employees of the contracting agency.
(c) City employees who prior to the effective date of the contract with the hospital are assigned to a hospital that became a contracting agency because of subdivision (p) of Section 20057 shall be deemed hospital employees from and after the effective date of the contract with the hospital for retirement purposes. City employees who after the effective date of the contract with the hospital become employed by the hospital, shall be considered as new employees of the hospital for retirement purposes.
(d) Any person in the employ of a school employer.
(e) Public health department or district employees who were employees prior to the date of assumption of the contract by the governing body of a county of the 15th class shall be deemed public health department or district employees from and after the effective date of assumption of the contract for retirement purposes.
Employees who after the effective date of assumption of the contract become employed by the public health department or district shall be considered as new employees for retirement purposes.
20029. "Employee federal contributions" means those contributions required of employees under the federal system with respect to wages paid to individuals who perform services in employment in any coverage group included in the federal-state agreement, at the rate of taxes imposed on employees by Section 3101 of Title 26 of the United States Code for the respective calendar years set forth therein.
20030. "Employer" means the state, the university, a school employer, and any contracting agency employing an employee.
20031. "Employer federal contributions" means those contributions required of employers under the federal system with respect to wages paid to individuals who perform services in employment in any coverage group included in the federal-state agreement, at the rate of taxes imposed on employers by Section 3111 of Title 26 of the United States Code for the respective calendar years set forth therein and all penalties and interest that may be required to be paid with respect to those wages under the federal-state agreement.
20032. "Federal-state agreement" means the agreement or any modification thereof executed by the board pursuant to Section 418 of Title 42 of the United States Code.
20033. "Federal system" means the old age, survivors, disability, and health insurance provisions of the Social Security Act.
20034. The average monthly salary during any period of service as a member of any retirement system maintained by the university shall be considered compensation earnable by a member of this system for purposes of computing final...
