(a) Contribution Amount. Each Plan Member shall contribute to the Fire and Police Pension Plan – Tier 3 by salary deduction at the rate of 8% of the amount of his or her salary, except that further contributions to the Plan shall not be required from a Plan Member who has served as a Plan Member more than 30 years.
For purposes of determining the amount of the deduction, Salary shall mean those elements of a Plan Member’s compensation which would be included in calculating Final Average Salary. The administrative head of the Fire Department or the Police Department shall cause to be shown on each and every payroll of such department a deduction of 8% of the amount of salary of each Plan Member whose name appears thereon.
(b) Member Accounts. The Board shall maintain an individual account of the contributions by or for each Plan Member, as hereinabove provided. Regular interest shall be credited to such individual accounts as of the last day of June and December of each year at such rate as the Board may deem proper in light of the Fire and Police Pension Plan’s earnings, exclusive of profits and losses on principal heretofore or hereafter resulting from sales of securities. No such interest shall be credited at any other time or to the individual account of any person who is not a Plan Member but such interest shall be credited to the individual account of a Plan Member whose employment is terminated for any reason for any period of service between the next preceding last day of June or December and the end of the pay period preceding the date of such termination at the rate at which regular interest was last credited to Plan Members’ individual accounts.
(c) Payroll Deduction. Each Plan Member shall be deemed to consent and agree to each deduction made as provided for herein and the payment of each payroll check to such Plan Member shall be a full and complete discharge and acquittance of all claims and demands whatever for the services rendered by each member during the period covered by such payroll, except such claims as such Plan Member has to the benefits or payments provided for in this Tier 3.
(d) Election of Refund Forfeits Right to Benefits. Plan Members or beneficiaries thereof who elect to receive a refund of contributions, forfeit the right to benefits provided in this Tier 3. After payment of any pension benefit has commenced, the Plan Member or beneficiaries forfeit the right to a refund of the Plan Member’s contributions. Plan Members who return to active duty from a disability pension may not thereafter have their contributions refunded. A terminated Plan Member who had elected to have contributions returned, but who re-enters service and again becomes a Plan Member, shall have the privilege of regaining the prior service credit by repaying the amount of his or her previously refunded contributions and interest and an amount calculated as interest which would have been earned between the date of original termination of status as a Plan Member and the date of re-entry into service as a Department Member.
(e) Assuring Full Member Contributions. The Board shall have rule- making authority to insure that the Fire and Police Pension Plan – Tier 3 receives member contributions for all periods of credited service, except that the Board shall not have authority to require contributions for service credit for military service and for periods while a Plan Member is receiving a disability pension, or full pay for Injury On Duty. Plan Members, however, may elect to make contributions for periods of Injury On Duty compensated at the rate provided by general law in order to acquire credit for Years of Service for such period. Such contributions shall be at the contribution rate herein provided and shall be based on the salary the Plan Member would have received if he or she had not occupied Injury On Duty status.