(a) Service breaks. Pension credits shall be granted for all credited service for which a member of the fund receives employment compensation from the city, subject to the following regulations pertaining to service breaks.
(1) Authorized service breaks of 90 or less consecutive calendar days without pay shall not be deducted from credited service.
(2) Except as provided below, periods of absence in excess of 90 consecutive calendar days without pay shall be deducted from credited service, and no contributions shall be made by members or by the city during such periods.
(3) a. An absence of any period shall be permitted without loss of prior credited service, unless the member receives a distribution of his or her total contributions, plus regular interest, and any period of absence shall cancel all prior credited service if the member receives a distribution of the member's total contributions, plus regular interest; however, if a member is absent, the member may regain prior credited service by repaying the total amount of the refund, less the amount received from the member's cash balance account, from the date of withdrawal to the date of repayment, pursuant to policies adopted by the Board under one of the two following options:
1. Repay in a single lump sum payment within 90 days of reemployment, including buy back interest on the date of repayment that also includes buy back interest for the period of absence on the date of the repayment; or
2. Repay through a payroll deduction pay-back plan which commences within 90 days of reemployment, and provides buy back interest for the period of absence and that buy back interest will be charged throughout the pay-back period and that the repayment period will not exceed three years.
b. No other repayment option is authorized for the repayment of prior credited service.
(4) Effective on or after December 12, 1994, any member who is reemployed by the city upon completion of service in the uniformed services (within the time frame provided under the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act of 1994, as amended) shall be granted credited service for such uniformed service, provided the member makes the contributions (with no interest) to the fund that the member would have been required to contribute if the member had remained continuously employed by the city throughout the period of uniformed service. Such payment must be made during the period which commences with the date of reemployment by the city and which duration is three times the period of the member's service in the uniformed services, not to exceed five years. If a reemployed member makes such contributions, the city shall also make its corresponding contributions to the fund. This provision shall be construed consistently with the requirements of the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Act of 1994, as amended.
(5) Any member whose employment was terminated involuntarily and was thereafter reinstated as the direct result of an appeal or suit arising from the involuntary termination shall be granted all credited service for the period of absence, provided, however that contributions for credited service for such period of absence must be made by the city and by or on behalf of the member in accordance with § 2.5-3.
(b) Accumulated sick leave and major medical leave. Subject to all further terms and conditions of this § 2.5-4(b), only that portion of a person's accumulated sick leave and major medical leave that was earned prior to July 20, 2019 and that remains unused (or otherwise uncompensated to the member) as of the date the person retires shall be taken into account in calculating that person's credited service, provided, however, that such balance shall never be taken into account in calculating the pension of a member receiving a line of duty disability pension.
(1) For accumulated sick leave and/or major medical leave earned prior to July 20, 2019:
a. 1. Subject to the provisions of this section, at retirement and in calculating a vested terminated pension, a member shall have added to his or her credited service hours of accumulated sick leave and/or major medical leave to the extent the official personnel records of the city reflect that such leave was (i) earned prior to July 20, 2019 and (ii) not used by or otherwise compensated to the member, with leave that meets both of these criteria being considered and referred to herein as "qualified leave." For credited service purposes, qualified leave shall be converted into months using the following formula:
2. The total number of hours of qualified leave divided by the annual scheduled hours for the position from which the member is retiring multiplied by 12. The resulting product represents the number of months in whole numbers and/or a decimal portion of a month. Any whole number shall constitute that number of months to be added to credited service. If the resulting product contains a decimal value that is less than five tenths (0.50), then no addition to credited service shall be made with respect to such decimal value; however, if the resulting product contains a decimal value that is five tenths (0.50) or greater, then an additional month of credited service shall be provided for such decimal value.
b. Qualified leave shall not be applied toward determining of retirement eligibility, but only toward calculation of retirement benefits.
c. Group I general members and group III police members who have qualified leave that was earned prior to October 1, 2013, will have the leave added to credited service earned or purchased prior to October 1, 2013. Qualified leave earned on or after October 1, 2013 and before July 20, 2019 will be added to credited service earned or purchased during that period.
d. Group I general members and group III police members who use sick leave and/or major medical leave on or after July 20, 2019 will have the leave deducted as follows:
1. First from accrued sick leave and/or major medical leave hours earned on or after July 20, 2019 to the extent such leave is available for use;
2. Second from accumulated sick leave and/or major medical leave hours earned prior to October 1, 2013 until such time as those hours are completely exhausted; and
3. Finally from accumulated sick leave and/or major medical leave hours earned from October 1, 2013 through July 19, 2019 until such hours are completely exhausted.
e. Group V firefighters who have qualified leave that was earned prior to January 10, 2015, will have the leave added to credited service earned or purchased prior to January 10, 2015. Qualified leave earned on or after January 10, 2015 and before July 20, 2019 will be added to credited service earned or purchased during that period.
f. Group V firefighters who use sick leave and/or major medical leave on or after July 20, 2019 will have the leave deducted as follows:
1. First from accrued sick leave and/or major medical leave hours earned on or after July 20, 2019 to the extent such leave is available for use;
2. Second from accumulated sick leave and/or major medical leave hours earned prior to January 10, 2015 until such time as those hours are completely exhausted; and
3. Finally from accumulated sick leave and/or major medical leave hours earned from January 10, 2015 through July 19, 2019 until such hours are completely exhausted.
g. Group II general members, group IV police members, and group VI firefighters who use sick leave and/or major medical leave on or after July 20, 2019 will have the leave deducted as follows:
1. First from accrued sick leave and/or major medical leave hours earned on or after July 20, 2019 to the extent such leave is available for use; and
2. Second from accumulated sick leave and/or major medical leave hours earned through July 19, 2019 until such time as those hours are completely exhausted.
(2) For accumulated sick leave and/or major medical leave earned on or after July 20, 2019:
a. Accumulated sick leave and/or major medical leave earned on or after July 20, 2019, will not be added to credited service at retirement.
(c) Permissive service credits.
(1) General. Effective on or after October 1, 2002, a member who has earnings from the city for the then current year may elect to purchase permissive service credits and have his or her period of credited service increased for purposes of calculating the member’s retirement benefit, pursuant to the provisions of this division. The actuary shall prepare factors which shall be used to determine the voluntary additional contributions that a member must make to purchase permissive service credits, provided, however, that in no event shall a member be required to contribute an amount that exceeds the amount necessary to fund the benefit attributable to the additional credited service that is purchased.
(2) Limitations. A member may purchase up to five years of permissive service credits that are attributable to non-qualified service, and a member cannot purchase any permissive service credits for non-qualified service prior to completion of five years of participation as a member.
(3) Non-qualified service. For purposes of this subsection (c), the term NON-QUALIFIED SERVICE means service other than:
a. Service (including parental, medical, sabbatical and similar leave) as an employee of the government of the United States, any state or political subdivision thereof, or any agency instrumentality of any of the foregoing (other than military service or service for credit which was obtained as a result of the repayment described in § 415(k)(3) of the Code);
b. Service (including parental, medical, sabbatical and similar leave) as an employee (other than as an employee described in subsection (c)(3)a. above) of an education organization described in § 170(b)(l)(A)(ii) of the Code which is a public, private or sectarian school which provides elementary or secondary education (through grade 12), as determined under state law;
c. Service as an employee of an association of employees who are described in subsection (c)(3)a. above; or
d. Military service (other than qualified military service under § 414(u) of the Code) recognized by such governmental plan. In the case of service described in subsections (c)(3)a.1., (c)(3)b. or (c)(3)c. above, such service will be non-qualified service if recognition of such service would cause a member to receive retirement benefits for the same service under more than one plan.
(4) Purchase of permissive service credits. A member may purchase permissive service credits pursuant to the rules, procedures and forms as may be adopted and amended by the board in its complete discretion, which shall be uniform and nondiscriminatory and which shall be interpreted in a manner that is consistent with the provision of the retirement ordinance and applicable law. Permissive service credits may be purchased by a member’s direct payment to the trustee of the amount determined by the factors provided by the actuary, or through a trustee to trustee transfer of such amount from the member’s account under an eligible deferred compensation plan (as defined in Code § 457) or a qualified plan within the meaning of Code § 401(a), including a 401(k) plan, or the member’s annuity contract meeting the requirements of Code § 403(b).
(Ord. 20471-10-2012, § 2, passed 10-23-2012; Ord. 21459-09-2014, § 1, passed 9-16-2014; Ord. 21510-10-2014, § 1, passed 10-21-2014; Ord. 23034-12-2017, § 1, passed 12-12-2017; Ord. 23516-12-2018, § 1, passed 12-11-2018)