SECTIONS 20500-20516 - California Statutes

GOVERNMENT CODE

SECTION 20500-20516

20500. The contract may include any provisions consistent with this
part and necessary in the administration of this system as it
affects the public agency and its employees.
Whenever in this part an election is given to contracting agencies
to subject themselves and their employees to provisions of this part
otherwise not applicable to contracting agencies and their employees
by amendment to their contracts with the board, any contract made
after the effective date of the provision giving the election may
include any provisions necessary to give effect to the election of
the contracting agency.

20501. Contracts with school employers may include school district
employees in this system only with respect to service rendered in a
status in which they are not eligible for membership in the State
Teachers' Retirement Plan.

20502. The contract shall include in this system all firefighters,
police officers, county peace officers, local sheriffs, and other
employees of the contracting agency, except as exclusions in addition
to the exclusions applicable to state employees may be agreed to by
the agency and the board. The contract shall not provide for the
exclusion of some, but not all, firefighters, police officers, county
peace officers, or local sheriffs. The exclusions of employees,
other than firefighters, police officers, county peace officers, or
local sheriffs, shall be based on groups of employees such as
departments or duties, and not on individual employees. The
exclusions of groups may be made by amendments to contracts, with
respect to future entrants into the group. The board may disapprove
the exclusion of a group, if in its opinion the exclusion adversely
affects the interest of this system. Membership in this system is
compulsory for all employees included under a contract. This section
shall not be construed to supersede Sections 20303 and 20305.

20503. Notwithstanding Section 20055, a contracting agency may
amend its contract to remove exclusions prospectively only, and
without creating liability for prior service.

20504. Notwithstanding Section 20055, a contracting agency, which
is a reciprocal system pursuant to Section 20351, may amend its
contract to remove an exclusion of groups of employees of the
reciprocal system who elect to become members of this system
prospectively only. The amendment shall not create liability for
prior service.

20505. Notwithstanding any other provision of law, every employee
who enters or reenters service with a contracting agency on and after
January 1, 1992, shall immediately become a member of this system
irrespective of any probationary period, if the employee would
otherwise be eligible for membership. This system shall not exclude
employees, or groups of employees, solely on the basis of their
status as probationary employees.

20506. Any contract heretofore or hereafter entered into shall
subject the contracting agency and its employees to all provisions of
this part and all amendments thereto applicable to members, local
miscellaneous members, or local safety members except those
provisions that are expressly inapplicable to a contracting agency
until it elects to be subject to those provisions.

20507. A contracting agency whose contract is effective on and
after January 1, 1974, that does not become an employer for purposes
of Chapter 9 (commencing with Section 20790), or a contracting agency
that ceases to be an employer, shall be subject to all provisions of
the retirement law as it exists on the date of contract or on the
date a contracting agency ceases to be an employer, whichever the
case may be, and as it may be amended thereafter excepting the
provisions of Chapter 9, other than Section 20834, and those
amendments thereafter as are expressly made inapplicable to a
contracting agency until the agency elects to be subject thereto.

20508. When a contracting agency is succeeded by another agency,
whether or not the former agency ceases to exist, or when the
functions of a contracting agency are assumed by a succeeding agency,
the succeeding agency, may, if it is not already a contracting
agency, become a contracting agency of this system. If a succeeding
agency is or becomes a contracting agency, the contract of the former
agency shall be merged into the contract of the succeeding agency.
Whenever there is a merger of contracts pursuant to this section,
whether in whole or in part, the assumed contracts, or portions
thereof, of the former agency's contract shall cease to exist and the
contract of the succeeding agency shall be deemed a continuation of
the prior agency's contract. However, any changes in contract terms
in the succeeding agency's contract with respect to employees of the
former agency shall be considered as a new contract with respect to
those provisions.
Accumulated contributions held for or made by the former agency
and its employees, and assets derived from those contributions, shall
be merged with analogous contributions under the contract of the
succeeding agency. Credit for prior and current service to members
under the former agency's contract, which accrued while they were
eligible for membership, shall not be reduced by the merger.
Employees of a noncontracting public agency included in the
succeeding agency contract shall become members in the manner
applicable to employees of other contracting agencies and shall
receive credit for service accordingly.
The liability to this system with respect to service credited
under the former agency's contract shall become a contractual
liability of the succeeding agency. The former and succeeding
agencies may agree to apportion and adjust between them any payments
with respect to service credit liability. However, no agreement shall
operate to defeat the liability of the succeeding agency with
respect to that service.

20509. When a school district ceases to exist and is succeeded by,
or the territory thereof is attached to, another school district that
is a contracting agency, the contract under which the contracting
agency participates in this system shall be considered, with respect
to the former district and its employees, a continuation of the
contract under which the former district participated, with the
changes as the succeeding contract contains. The board shall
determine the amount of accumulated contributions held under the
contract of the county superintendent of schools which had been made
by the former district, and the contributions shall be transferred to
the credit of the contract under which the succeeding district
participates.
Nothing in this section or Section 20508 shall authorize a school
district, the formation of which becomes effective for all purposes
after October 1, 1961, to participate in this system except as
provided in Chapter 6 (commencing with Section 20610).

20510. When a hospital becomes a contracting agency pursuant to
subdivision (p) of Section 20057, the contract shall be construed as
a continuation of the city's contract for all purposes of this part,
and the sponsoring city, the hospital, and the board shall enter into
an agreement under the terms of which hospital employees shall
retain, under the hospital's contract, all of the retirement rights
and benefits that have accrued to them under the city's contract. The
board shall compute the unpaid costs, if any, of the accrued rights
and benefits, and the city shall pay to the board that amount in a
manner and at times satisfactory to all parties to the agreement.
Thereafter, the city shall be relieved and discharged from all
liabilities on account of rights and benefits that have accrued to
the hospital employees, and the hospital shall then become liable for
those rights and benefits under its contract with the board.
On and after the effective date of the hospital's contract with
the board, neither the city nor the hospital shall be an employer as
defined in Section 20790.
All employees of the city who have retired or separated from
employment prior to the effective date of the hospital's contract
shall be treated as retired city employees or former city employees,
as the case may be, for all purposes of this part, whether or not
they ever worked in the hospital.

20511. Notwithstanding this article or Article 5 (commencing with
Section 20570), when all or a portion of one agency's contract is
merged into that of another, the retirement allowances may be
computed separately for service under the former contract and service
under the succeeding contract. In these cases, a transferred member
shall be subject to the terms and conditions of the succeeding agency'
s contract as the member was a new employee of the succeeding agency
at the time of transfer.
Furthermore, when all or a portion of one agency's contract is
merged into that of another, and when eligibility for membership is
different between the two contracts, the differences shall not create
prior service liabilities as against either agency, and transferred
members shall not be entitled under either contract to credit for
service rendered when they were not eligible for membership.

20512. Whenever in this part an election is given to contracting
agencies to subject themselves and their employees to provisions of
this part otherwise not applicable to contracting agencies and their
employees, a contracting agency may exercise the right of election
independently with respect to its employees included in the insurance
system established under Title II of the Social Security Act and
with respect to its employees not so included and with respect to
those employees who are local police officers, local firefighters,
county peace officers, local safety members other than local police
officers or local firefighters or county peace officers, and local
miscellaneous members.

20513. Notwithstanding the election given in Section 20514 to
contracting agencies, whether to subject themselves and their
employees thereto, the contract of school districts in which the
average daily attendance of all districts combined is in excess of
400,000 and which are governed by the same governing board, without
action by the governing board, shall be subject to that section and
shall include all provisions authorized by Section 20514 to be
included therein by contract amendment.

20514. If the effective date of coverage under the federal system
of members who are employees of a contracting agency under this
system is prior to the time employee federal contributions are first
deducted from the salaries and wages of the employees and a reduced
benefit is provided with respect to service from and after the
effective date of coverage, member contributions shall be transferred
in the manner and to the extent provided in this section to the Old
Age and Survivors' Insurance Revolving Fund and applied to payment of
employee federal contributions for the period prior to the
deductions.
There shall be transferred from the member's accumulated
contributions an amount equal to employee federal contributions due
for the member. The amount so transferred shall not exceed the
difference between the total normal contributions of the member and
the normal contributions that would have been credited to his or her
account had the reduced rate of contribution provided in the amended
contract with the public agency been in effect from and after the
effective date of coverage, assuming that contributions in any year
were made in equal monthly installments.
The amount by which the retroactive employee contributions due for
a member exceeds the amount transferred from the employee account
shall be transmitted to the fund by the contracting agency and
constitute an indebtedness of the member to the employer and a lien
on any salary or wages payable to the employee or on his or her
account.
If the contract is or has been amended to provide for the transfer
of retroactive employee contributions in the manner provided in this
section, the amount by which the total normal contributions of each
member for the period subsequent to the effective date of coverage
under the federal system less the total normal contributions that
would have been credited to the account of the member had the reduced
rate of contribution provided in the amended contract with the
public agency been in effect from and after that date of coverage
exceed the employee federal contributions for the member for the
period after the date of coverage, shall be paid to the member.

20515. (a) A contracting agency that has included this section in
its contract with the board, by express provision or by amendment, on
or before December 31, 2001, may provide that, notwithstanding any
other provision of this part, service that was in fact also covered
under the federal system shall not be deemed as service that was also
covered under the federal system, for all purposes of this part,
except for the benefits provided by Article 3 (commencing with
Section 21570) of Chapter 14. The amendment shall only be applicable
to persons who are employed on and after the effective date of the
amendment.
(b) The amendment made to this section by Chapter 636 of the
Statutes of 1994 shall apply only to a contracting agency that
includes this section in its contract on and after January 1, 1995,
and on or before December 31, 2001.

20516. (a) Notwithstanding any other provision of this part, a
contracting agency and its employees may agree, in writing, to share
the costs of any optional benefit that is inapplicable to a
contracting agency until the agency elects to be subject to the
benefit. The agreement shall specify the exact percentage of member
compensation that shall be paid toward the current service cost of
the benefits by members. The member contributions shall be normal
contributions over and above normal contributions otherwise required
by this part and shall be treated as normal contributions for all
purposes of this part. The contributions shall be uniform with
respect to all members within each of the following classifications:
local miscellaneous members, local police officers, local
firefighters, county peace officers, and all local safety members
other than local police officers, local firefighters, and county
peace officers. The balance of any costs shall be paid by the
contracting agency and shall be credited to the employer's account.
(b) This section shall not apply to any optional benefit that is
elected by a contracting agency prior to January 1, 1979.
(c) This section shall not apply to any contracting agency nor to
the employees of a contracting agency until the agency elects to be
subject to this section by contract or by amendment to its contract
made in the manner prescribed for approval of contracts.
Contributions provided by this section shall be withheld from member
compensation or otherwise collected when the contract amendment
becomes effective.
(d) For the purposes of this section, all contributions,
liabilities, actuarial interest rates, and other valuation factors
shall be determined on the basis of actuarial assumptions and methods
that, in the aggregate, are reasonable and which, in combination,
offer the actuary's best estimate of anticipated experience under
this system.
(e) The additional employer contributions required under this
section shall be computed as a level percentage of member
compensation. The additional contribution rate required at the time
this section is added to a contract shall not be less than the sum of
(1) the actuarial normal cost, plus (2) the additional contribution
required to amortize the increase in accrued liability attributable
to benefits elected under this section over a period of not more than
30 years from the date this section becomes effective in the public
agency's contract.
(f) Nothing in this section shall preclude a contracting agency
and its employees from independently agreeing in a memorandum of
understanding to share the costs of any optional benefit or when
initially entering into a contract, any benefit, in a manner
inconsistent with this section. However, any agreement in a
memorandum of understanding that is inconsistent with this section
shall not be part of the contract between this system and the
contracting agency.