(a) Effective February 5, 1996, upon approval by the Mayor and the earliest period allowed by law, the full amount of the statutorily required contributions to the Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio shall be withheld from the gross pay of each person within any of the classes established in division (c) hereof and shall be picked up (assumed and paid to the Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio) by the city. This pick-up by the city is, and shall be designated as, public employee contributions and shall be in lieu of contributions to the Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio by each person within any of the classes established in division (c) hereof. No person subject to this pick-up shall have the option of choosing to receive the statutorily required contribution to the Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio directly instead of having it picked up by the city, or of being excluded from the pick-up.
(b) The city shall, in reporting and making remittance to the Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio, report that the public employee's contribution for each person subject to this pick-up has been made as provided by the statute.
(c) The pick-up by the city provided by this section shall apply to all persons who are employees of the city and who are or become contributing members of the Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio.
(d) (1) The city's method of payment of salary to employees who are participants in the Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio is hereby modified as follows, in order to provide for a salary reduction pick-up of employee contributions to the Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio:
(2) The total salary for each employee shall be the salary otherwise payable under the city's policies. Such total salary of each employee shall be payable by the city in two parts: deferred salary; and cash salary. 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 the Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio to be paid as an employee contribution by that employee, and shall be paid by the city to the Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio on behalf of that employee as a pick-up and in lieu of the Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio employee contribution otherwise payable by that employee. 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 the Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio 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 section, shall not be greater than the amounts it would have paid for those items had this provision not been in effect.
(e) The Director of Finance and Public Record is hereby authorized and directed to implement the provisions of this section to institute the pick-up of the statutorily required contributions to the Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio for those persons referred to in division (c) hereof so as to enable them to obtain the result in federal and state tax deferments and other benefits.
(Ord. 5-96, passed 2-5-1996)