All provisions of the plan shall apply to senior management employees, except to the extent that any provision of this section is different than a provision in any other section of the plan, in which case the provisions of this section shall control with respect to the senior management employees.
(A) Participation in this plan shall be mandatory for senior management employees hired after the effective date of this section. Senior management employees who are employed in a senior management position on the effective date of this section, and are not in the plan as of that date, may choose to become participants in the plan by, within 60 days following such date, making an irrevocable written election on a form provided by the Board to participate in this plan. Senior management employees who elect to participate in this plan may also participate in a city-sponsored 401(a) defined contribution plan; however, the city shall no longer contribute to the 401(a) plan on behalf of such employees.
(B) Senior management employees shall acquire a 100% vested interest in this plan upon the earlier of the completion of ten years of continuous service or the completion of five years of continuous service as a senior management employee.
(C) Senior management employees who are employed in a senior management position on the effective date of this section and elect to participate in this plan in accordance with subsection (A) above may purchase credit for prior continuous service for all or any portion of their employment with the city. The election to purchase prior service must be made on a form to be supplied by the Board within 90 days of the effective date of this section. Senior management employees may purchase such credit for continuous service by paying the full actuarial cost thereof, plus interest, as determined by the plan actuary. The purchase amount may be paid through a cash payment or a direct trustee-to-trustee transfer or rollover from an eligible plan in accordance with § 34.0262. In addition, senior management employees may utilize up to 250 hours of accrued vacation leave toward the purchase of prior continuous service. A senior management employee who elects to purchase prior continuous service will have four years from the effective date of this section to complete the purchase. Only that time purchased by the earlier of the date that the employee leaves senior management service or retires will be counted toward vesting or benefit accrual.
(D) As used in this section, FULL ACTUARIAL COST means the increase in present value of benefits attributable to the continuous service being purchased by the
employee. The cost related to this service will be calculated on the basis of the actuarial assumptions adopted by the Board for the actuarial valuation as of October 1, 2006.
(E) If a senior management employee terminates city employment and is subsequently reemployed by the city prior to receipt of retirement benefits, the continuous service earned during the earlier period of employment may be combined with the continuous service earned in the subsequent period of employment for the purpose of calculating the retirement benefits due the member; and if the member attained five or more years of continuous service as a senior management employee during the earlier period of employment, such member will be considered to have a 100% vested interest in the plan.
(Ord. 2008-16, passed 12-11-07)