State employees' retirement.

(1) The Public Employees' Retirement Law (PERL) creates the Public Employees' Retirement System (PERS) , which provides a defined benefit to its members based on age at retirement, service credit, and final compensation. PERL vests the Board of Administration of PERS with management and control of the system. PERL sets forth the membership of the board, including 6 members elected under the supervision of the board, as specified. Under PERL, candidates for or incumbents of those 6 elected seats are required to file campaign statements with the Secretary of State no later than 2 days before the beginning of the ballot period, as determined by the board for the period ending 5 days before the beginning of the ballot period, and no later than January 10, for the period ending December 31. The Political Reform Act of 1974 expressly applies to candidates for elections to the board and to committees that are formed primarily to support or oppose those candidates. It requires those members to file semiannual campaign statements each year no later than July 31 for the period ending June 30, and no later than January 31 for the period ending December 31. This bill would clarify that the filing provisions under the Political Reform Act would apply. (2) PERL defines "payrate" for school members as the normal monthly rate of pay or base pay of the member paid in cash to similarly situated members of the same group or class of employment for services rendered on a full-time basis during normal working hours. For other members, PERL specifically includes the amount deducted from a member's salary for participation in a deferred compensation plan, a retirement plan or money purchase pension plan under a specified provision of federal law, and participation in a flexible benefits program. This bill would modify the definition of "payrate" for school members to include those amounts deducted from a school member's salary. (3) PERL permits the Board of Administration of PERS to adopt a funding period of 30 years to amortize unfunded accrued actuarial obligations for current and prior service for the purpose of determining employer contribution rates for contracting agencies and school employers. Existing law prohibits a contracting agency or a school employer from requesting a new amortization period more than once. This bill would delete the prohibition on a contracting agency or a school employer from requesting a new amortization period more than once. (4) PERL requires the state's contribution to PERS to be adjusted from time to time in the annual Budget Act by requiring that the Governor's proposed budget include the contribution rates submitted by the actuary of the liability for benefits on account of state employees, and requiring that the Legislature adopt the actuary's contribution rates and authorize the appropriation in the Budget Act. This bill would instead require the Governor, as part of the proposed budget, to include contribution rates adopted by the board for the liability for benefits on account of state employees and would require the Legislature to adopt the board's contribution rates and authorize the appropriation in the Budget Act. The bill would also authorize the board, in its discretion, to adopt new quarterly employer contribution rates for future contributions for the state plans to reflect changes in employee retirement contributions, benefits, or pension plan design contained in a memorandum of understanding, or similar changes for unrepresented employees, when those changes go into effect after the board has adopted its most recent annual employer contribution rates. (5) PERL permits surplus funds credited to the patrol member category to be used to reduce the state employer contribution to PERS and to reduce member contributions under the terms of a memorandum of understanding. This bill would correct an obsolete cross-reference in these provisions. (6) PERL requires that, for all retirement purposes with regard to members employed by a trial court who are subject to mandatory furloughs, credit for service and compensation earnable be based on the amounts of service earnable that would have been credited had the employee not been subject to mandatory furloughs, as defined. This bill would specify, with regard to the provisions described above, that credit for service and compensation earnable shall also be based on the amount of compensation earnable. (7) PERL requires that patrol members of PERS who are subject to specified retirement formulas be retired the first day of the calendar month succeeding the month in which he or she attains the age of 60 years. This bill would add a cross-reference to a new retirement formula for patrol members to these provisions. (8) PERL generally prohibits any person who has been retired under PERS from being employed in any capacity unless he or she is first reinstated from retirement, except as authorized. PERL authorizes a retired person to serve without reinstatement from retirement or loss or interruption of benefits provided by PERS, upon appointment by the governing body of a contracting agency to a position deemed by the governing body to be of a limited duration and requiring specialized skills or during an emergency to prevent stoppage of public business. These appointments are prohibited from exceeding a total for all employers of 960 hours in any fiscal year. This bill would require that the appointment be an interim appointment to a vacant position during recruitment for a permanent appointment and deemed by the governing body to require specialized skills or during an emergency to prevent stoppage of public business. The bill would prohibit the compensation for the interim appointment from exceeding the maximum published pay schedule for the vacant position. The bill would prohibit a governing body of a contracting agency from appointing a retired person under this provision more than once. (9) PERL similarly authorizes a retired person to serve without reinstatement from retirement or loss or interruption of benefits provided by PERS upon appointment by a school employer, by the Trustees of the California State University, the appointing power of a state agency, or public agency employer either during an emergency to prevent stoppage of public business or because the retired employee has skills needed in performing work of limited duration. This bill would clarify that those appointments would be temporary or interim and that the skills must be specialized. (10) PERL also authorizes a person retired for disability who has not attained the mandatory age for retirement applicable to persons in the employment in which he or she will be employed, and whom the board finds not disabled for that employment, to be employed by any employer without reinstatement from retirement in a position other than that from which he or she retired or a position in the same member classification. This bill would prohibit a person employed under that provision from being concurrently employed under other specified provisions that allow for employment after retirement. (11) PERL requires a death benefit to be paid to the estate of the decedent if the decedent had no effective beneficiary designation and there are no familial survivors, as specified, who are entitled to the benefit, if the estate is either probated or subject to probate. PERL also provides for the payment to a decedent's beneficiaries of any accrued and unpaid monthly allowance payable to a person, any uncashed warrant, any balance of prepaid complementary health premiums, any prepaid complementary annuitant health plan premiums, lump-sum benefit, or any uncashed lump-sum death benefit. This bill would authorize those benefits to be paid to a public administrator upon receipt by PERS of a written certification of authority for summary administration when the estate's total value does not exceed $30,000. (12) The federal Heroes Earnings Assistance and Relief Tax Act of 2008 requires survivors of a member who dies while performing qualified military service to be entitled to any benefits they would have received had the member remained an active employee. This bill would make changes to conform California law to that federal act. The bill would also make related technical changes to the above-described provisions. (13) This bill would incorporate changes in Sections 20636.1 and 21221 of the Government Code, proposed by AB 344, to be operative only if AB 344 and this bill are both chaptered and become effective on or before January 1, 2012, and this bill is chaptered last.