163.18 OPERS PICK-UP.

   (a)    Effective June 29, 2023, the full amount of the statutorily required employee contributions to the Ohio Public Employees Retirement System (“OPERS”) pursuant to Internal Revenue Code section 414(h)(2) shall be withheld from the gross pay of each full-time employee of the City, who is a member of OPERS and shall be “picked-up” (assumed and paid to OPERS) by the City. This “pick-up” by the City shall be designated as public employee contributions and shall be in lieu of contributions to OPERS by each person as described in subsection (b). No person subject to this “pick-up” shall have the option of choosing to receive the statutorily required contribution to OPERS directly instead of having it “picked-up” by the City or being excluded from the “pick-up”. The City shall, in reporting and making remittance to OPERS, report that the public employee’s contribution for each person subject to the “pick-up” has been made as provided by the statute. Contributions, although designated as employee contributions, are employer paid, and employees do not have the option to receive the contributions directly. All contributions are paid by the employer directly to the plan.

   (b)    The “pick-up” by the City provided by this Ordinance shall apply to full-time employees of the City who are or become contributing members of OPERS. The term “full-time employee” as used herein is as defined in Section 163.001 of the Codified Ordinances of the City of Fairfield, Ohio.

   (c)    The City’s method of payment of salary to employees who are participant in OPERS is hereby modified as provided in subsection (d) of this section in order to provide for a salary reduction and the pick-up of employee contributions to OPERS.

   (d) The total salary for each employee shall be the salary otherwise payable under City policies. Such total salary of each employee shall be payable by the City in two (2) parts: (i) deferred salary and; (ii) cash salary. An employee’s deferred salary shall be equal to that percentage of that employee’s total salary which is required from time to time by OPERS to be paid as an employee contribution by that employee, and shall be paid by the City to OPERS on behalf of that employee as a pick up and in lieu of the OPERS employee contribution otherwise payable by that employee. An employee’s cash salary shall be equal to that employee’s total salary less the amount of the pick up for that employee, and shall be payable, subject to applicable payroll deductions, to that employee. The City shall compute and remit its employer contributions to OPERS based upon an employee’s total salary. The total combined expenditures of the City for such employee’s total salaries payable under applicable City policies and the pick-up provisions of the ordinance shall not be greater than the amounts it would have paid for those items had this provision not been in effect.

   (e)    The provisions of subsection (a) above notwithstanding, the City hereby establishes a plan applicable only to the City Manager to “pick-up” and pay (assume and pay to the Public Employees Retirement System of the State of Ohio (OPERS) by the fringe benefit method), the full amount of the statutorily required percentage of employee gross pay contribution to the Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio (OPERS) and including any further amendments to such employee percentage contribution as may be required in the future. These contributions by the City, although designated as public employee contributions, are being paid by the City in lieu of contributions to the Public Employees Retirement System of the State of Ohio by the City Manager. These contributions are not included as federally taxable wages. The City Manager shall not have the option of being excluded from the “pick-up” provided in this subsection and shall not have the option of choosing to receive the contributed amounts directly instead of having them “picked-up” and paid to the Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio by the City. This subsection shall take effect only if and as specifically authorized in the City Manager’s Employment Agreement. The City of Fairfield, Ohio shall in reporting and making remittance to the Ohio Public Employees Retirement System report that the City Manager’s contribution subject to this “pick-up” has been made as provided by the statute.

(Ord. 105-23. Passed 6-29-23.)