(A) Effective April 13, 2021, the full amount of the statutorily required employee contributions to OPERS shall be withheld from the gross pay of each person within any of the classes established in division (B) below 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 within any of the classes established in division (B) below. 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 of being excluded from the “pick up”. The city shall, in reporting and making remittance to OPERS, report that the public employees contribution for each person subject to this “pick up” has been made as provided by the statute. Therefore, 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 section shall apply to all persons that are employees of the city who are or become contributing members of OPERS.
(C) The city method of payment of salary to employees who are participants in OPERS is hereby modified as provided in division (D) below, in order to provide for a salary reduction pick up of employee contributions to OPERS.
(D) (1) The total salary for each employee shall be the salary otherwise payable under the city policies. Such total salary of each employee shall be payable by the city in two parts:
(a) Deferred salary; and
(b) Cash salary.
(2) 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.
(3) 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 employees’ total salaries payable under applicable city, policies and the pick-up provisions of this resolution shall not be greater than the amounts it would have paid for those items had this provision not been in effect.
(E) The Treasurer and/or the Clerk are hereby authorized and directed to implement the provisions of this section to institute the “pick up” of the statutorily required contributions to OPERS for those persons reflected in division (B) above herein so as to enable them to obtain the result in federal and state tax deferments.
(Ord. 27-21, passed 4-12-2021)