If the retirement system manager finds, on medical advice, that a member of this plan, although incapacitated for the performance of his or her duties, is capable of performing other duties in the service of the city, the member shall not be entitled to a disability retirement allowance if, in accordance with any applicable civil service procedures, the city manager offers and the member accepts a transfer, reassignment or other change to a position with duties within his or her capacity to perform with his or her disability. If the compensation to the member in the new position is less than that of the member in the position from which he or she was disabled, the retirement system manager, in lieu of a disability retirement allowance, shall pay the member the difference in such compensation until his or her compensation in the new position equals the compensation that he or she received in the former position at the time he or she was disabled and left said position. Such payment in lieu of disability retirement allowance, to the extent that it does not exceed the amount of the disability retirement allowance to which said member would have been entitled at the time of his or her retirement for disability, shall be considered as a cost of providing benefits under this plan (as said term is used in former (1976) Charter Section 345), and any amount in excess of said allowance shall be charged to the city.
If a new position cannot be arranged at the time of eligibility for disability retirement allowance, such disability retirement allowance to which the member is entitled under this article shall be paid until such time as a new position is available and accepted.
If a disability retirement allowance is paid and the member later accepts such a new position, the period while on disability retirement shall not be considered as breaking the continuity of service and the member's rate of contribution shall be based on the same age as it was on the date of disability. If the member was a safety member of this plan, at the time disabled, and is transferred to a position which would otherwise require him or her to become a miscellaneous member of this plan, he or she may elect, in accordance with procedures established by the retirement system manager, to retain his or her membership as a safety member of this plan while performing the duties of his or her new position. The contribution rate of a member who so elects shall be based upon the contribution rate applicable to a safety member of this plan.
Nothing in this section shall be construed to require a member to accept reassignment or transfer in lieu of the disability retirement allowance. (Prior code § 34.05.516)