"Retirement allowance," "death allowance" or "allowance," shall mean equal monthly payments, beginning to accrue upon the date of retirement, or upon the day following the date of death, as the case may be, and continuing for life unless a different term of payment is definitely provided by the context.
"Compensation," as distinguished from benefits under the Workers' Compensation Insurance and Safety Act of the State of California, shall mean the remuneration payable in cash, by the City and County, without deduction except for absence from duty, for time during which the individual receiving such remuneration is a member of the police department, but excluding remuneration paid for overtime.
Subject to the requirement that it be payable in cash and that overtime be excluded, "compensation" for pension purposes may be defined in a collective bargaining agreement. Provided, however, that for retirement purposes, any increase in compensation attached to a rank which is based solely upon the possession of a POST certificate, compared to the equivalent rank without a POST certificate, shall be subject to the following limitations:
(a) for possession of the intermediate POST certificate, no more than 4% shall be included in compensation,
(b) for possession of the advanced POST certificate, no more than an additional 2% over the maximum provided in subsection (a), above, shall be included in compensation, These limits shall apply to any pay increments which are solely attributable to the possession of a POST certificate, including but not limited to premiums or special ranks which may be established in the future and which are solely attributable to the possession of a POST certificate.
"Compensation earnable" shall mean the compensation which would have been earned had the member received compensation without interruption throughout the period under consideration and at the rates of remuneration attached at that time to the ranks or positions held by him or her during such period, it being assumed that during any absence, he or she was in the rank or position held by him or her at the beginning of the absence, and that prior to becoming a member of the police department, he or she was in the rank or position first held by him or her in such department.
"Benefit" shall include "allowance," "retirement allowance," "death allowance" and "death benefit."
"Final compensation" shall mean the average monthly compensation earnable by a member during any one year of credited service in which his or her average compensation is the highest.
For purposes of calculation of final compensation, any increase in pay solely attributable to possession of a POST certificate shall be included only if the member possesses the qualifying POST certificate for a period of not less than four (4) years prior to his or her retirement date; provided, however, that should a member possess the qualifying POST certificate for a period of time less than four (4) years prior to retirement, final compensation shall be calculated based upon the monthly compensation in the next lower rank not requiring possession of the qualifying POST certificate.
For the purpose of Section A8.597 through A8.597-14, the terms "member of the police department," "member of the department," or "member" shall mean any member of the police department on January 1, 2003 who was an active member of the Retirement System under Section A8.586, and any officer or employee of the police department employed after January 1, 2003 who was or shall be subject to the Charter provisions governing entrance requirements of members of the uniformed force of said department and said terms shall further mean persons employed after January 1, 2003 at an age not greater than the maximum age then prescribed for entrance into employment in said uniformed force, to perform duties now performed under the titles of criminologist, photographer, police woman or jail matron; provided, however, that said terms shall not include any person who has not satisfactorily completed such course of training as may be required by the police department prior to assignment to active duty with said department.
"Retirement system" or "system" shall mean San Francisco City and County Employees' Retirement System as created in Section A8.500 of the Charter.
"Retirement board" shall mean "retirement board" as created in Section 3.670 of the Charter.
"Charter" shall mean the Charter of the City and County of San Francisco.
Words used in the masculine gender shall include the feminine and neuter gender, words used in the feminine gender shall include the masculine and neuter gender, and singular numbers shall include the plural and the plural the singular.
"Interest" shall mean interest at the rate adopted by the retirement board.
(Added November 2002)