(A) Interest of members in system. At no time prior to the satisfaction of all liabilities under the system with respect to retirees and members and their spouses or beneficiaries shall any part of the corpus or income of the fund be used for or diverted to any purpose other than for their exclusive benefit.
(B) No reduction of accrued benefits. No amendment or ordinance shall be adopted by the city that shall have the effect of reducing the then-vested accrued benefits of any member or any member's beneficiaries.
(C) Qualification of system. It is intended that the system will constitute a qualified pension plan under the applicable provisions of the code, as now in effect or hereafter amended. Any modification or amendment of the system may be made retroactively, if necessary or appropriate, to qualify or maintain the system as a plan meeting the requirements of the applicable provisions of the code as now in effect or hereafter amended, or any other applicable provisions of the U.S. federal tax laws, as now in effect or hereafter amended or adopted and the regulations issued thereunder. Subject to the foregoing, the system is declared to be an irrevocable plan and trust, subject to the city's right to terminate in accordance with law.
(1) In recognition of the changing requirements of system qualification, the Board shall adopt an administrative policy setting forth the required provisions for tax qualification. Such a policy shall be amended by the Board as required to maintain continuing compliance with the Internal Revenue Code and that policy and any amendments shall have the force of law as if adopted by the City Council.
(D) Use of forfeitures. Forfeitures arising from terminations of service of members shall serve only to reduce current or future contributions to the fund.
(E) Correction of records. Should any change or error in records result in any member or beneficiary receiving from the system more or less than he would have been entitled to receive had the records been correct, then on discovery of any such error the board shall cause the same to be corrected and as far as practicable shall direct that the payments be adjusted in such manner that the actuarial equivalent of the benefit to which the member or beneficiary was correctly entitled shall be paid.
(F) USSERA. Notwithstanding any provisions of this Plan to the contrary, effective as of December 12, 1994, contributions, benefits and service credit with respect to qualified military service will be provided in accordance with Section 414(u) of the IRC, USSERA and FLA. Stat. Chapters 175 and 185.
(G) Differential Wage Payments. For Plan Years beginning after December 31, 2008: (i) an individual receiving a differential wage payment, as defined by IRC section 3401(h)(2), is treated as a Member of the System; (ii) the differential wage payment is treated as Compensation for purposes of IRC section 415(c)(3) and Treasury Regulation section 1.415(c)-2; and (iii) the System is not treated as failing to meet the requirements of any provision described in IRC Section 414(u)(1)(C) (or corresponding System provisions) by reason of any contribution or benefit which is based on the differential wage payment.
(H) Notwithstanding any provision in this Part to the contrary members eligible for an unreduced normal retirement benefit may receive an in-service distribution provided any such distribution complies with the applicable requirements of the Internal Revenue Code, Treasury Regulations and guidance issued by the Internal Revenue service with respect to in-service distributions. This provision is applicable only to members who were eligible to commence normal retirement benefits during the period from April 1, 2004 to November 30, 2011.
(1) Members may elect to cease in-service distributions, at any time. A member who ceases in-service distributions may restart participation in this Plan, to the extent they otherwise qualify under the terms of this Plan. Contributions must continue upon the member's re-entry in this Plan, in accordance with § 55.06 here.
(2) A member who ceases in-service distributions and restarts participation in this Plan may receive credited service for their period of in-service distribution, in each case, if and only if, upon their re-entry into this Plan, the value of Contributions for such period of in-service distributions are deducted from the member's retirement allowance and benefit, in accordance with each other requirement for credited service herein.
(3) In accordance with the intent of Section 1.401-l(b)(l)(i) of the Treasury Regulations, in no event shall a member be permitted to restart participation in this Retirement Plan, under this § 55.18(H), greater than one time.
(4) At the time of a member's Retirement, when he or she ceases active membership and severs employment with the City, such member's Retirement allowance and benefit, determined in each case in accordance with the provisions herein, shall be reduced by the actuarially equivalent value of the in-service distribution.
(5) In the event that the in-service distributions of any member must cease in order to maintain the tax-qualified status of this Plan, then those members whose in-service distributions cease will be returned to active membership in the Plan with prior service credit for all years in which distributions were received, provided the member pays to the Plan the required employee contributions, without interest, which would have been paid had the member not commenced in-service distributions; provided, however, if such member fails to pay the required employee contributions in the time and manner determined by the Board of Trustees, such member shall not receive prior service credit for the years in which in-service distributions were received. To the extent required in order to maintain the tax-qualified status of the Plan, the Plan shall recoup a member's prior in-service distributions from the affected member's future benefit payments following such member's separation from the City, upon the affected member's separation from the City, the member's benefit payments (which shall take into account all of the member's credited service) shall be reduced by the pro-rata monthly share of the amount to be recouped based on the member's life expectancy utilizing the mortality table in effect at the time benefits recommence.
(Ord. 2000-15, passed 5-5-00; Am. Ord. 2013-45, passed 8-13-13; Am. Ord. 2015-24, passed 5-21-15; Am. Ord. 2017-32, passed 5-4-17; Am. Ord. 2022-12, passed 1-20-22)