AN
ACT Relating to membership in the public employees' retirement system; amending
RCW 41.40.023; and adding new sections to chapter 41.40 RCW.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE
LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:
Sec.
1. RCW
41.40.023 and 1997 c 254 s 11 are each amended to read as follows:
Membership
in the retirement system shall consist of all regularly compensated employees
and appointive and elective officials of employers, as defined in this chapter,
with the following exceptions:
(1)
Persons in ineligible positions;
(2)
Employees of the legislature except the officers thereof elected by the members
of the senate and the house and legislative committees, unless membership of
such employees be authorized by the said committee;
(3)(a)
Persons holding elective offices or persons appointed directly by the
governor: PROVIDED, That such persons shall have the option of applying for
membership during such periods of employment: AND PROVIDED FURTHER, That any
persons holding or who have held elective offices or persons appointed by the
governor who are members in the retirement system and who have, prior to
becoming such members, previously held an elective office, and did not at the
start of such initial or successive terms of office exercise their option to
become members, may apply for membership to be effective during such term or
terms of office, and shall be allowed to establish the service credit
applicable to such term or terms of office upon payment of the employee
contributions therefor by the employee with interest as determined by the
director and employer contributions therefor by the employer or employee with
interest as determined by the director: AND PROVIDED FURTHER, That all
contributions with interest submitted by the employee under this subsection
shall be placed in the employee's individual account in the employee's savings
fund and be treated as any other contribution made by the employee, with the
exception that any contributions submitted by the employee in payment of the
employer's obligation, together with the interest the director may apply to the
employer's contribution, shall not be considered part of the member's annuity
for any purpose except withdrawal of contributions;
(b)
A member holding elective office who has elected to apply for membership
pursuant to (a) of this subsection and who later wishes to be eligible for a
retirement allowance shall have the option of ending his or her membership in
the retirement system. A member wishing to end his or her membership under
this subsection must file, on a form supplied by the department, a statement
indicating that the member agrees to irrevocably abandon any claim for service
for future periods served as an elected official. A member who receives more
than fifteen thousand dollars per year in compensation for his or her elective
service, adjusted annually for inflation by the director, is not eligible for
the option provided by this subsection (3)(b);
(4)
Employees holding membership in, or receiving pension benefits under, any
retirement plan operated wholly or in part by an agency of the state or
political subdivision thereof, or who are by reason of their current employment
contributing to or otherwise establishing the right to receive benefits from
any such retirement plan except as follows: ((PROVIDED, HOWEVER,))
(a)
In any case where the retirement system has in existence an agreement with
another retirement system in connection with exchange of service credit or an
agreement whereby members can retain service credit in more than one system,
such an employee shall be allowed membership rights should the agreement so
provide((: AND PROVIDED FURTHER, That));
(b)
An employee shall be allowed membership if otherwise eligible while
receiving survivor's benefits((: AND PROVIDED FURTHER, That));
(c)
An employee shall not either before or after June 7, 1984, be excluded from
membership or denied service credit pursuant to this subsection solely on
account of: (((a))) (i) Membership in the plan created under
chapter 2.14 RCW; or (((b))) (ii) enrollment under the relief and
compensation provisions or the pension provisions of the volunteer fire
fighters' relief and pension fund under chapter 41.24 RCW;
(d)
Except as provided in section 2 of this act, on or after the effective date of
this act, an employee shall not be excluded from membership or denied service
credit pursuant to this subsection solely on account of participation in a
defined contribution pension plan qualified under section 401 of the internal
revenue code;
(e)
Employees who have been reported in the retirement system prior to the
effective date of this act, and who participated during the same period of time
in a defined contribution pension plan qualified under section 401 of the
internal revenue code and operated wholly or in part by the employer, shall not
be excluded from previous retirement system membership and service credit on
account of such participation;
(5)
Patient and inmate help in state charitable, penal, and correctional
institutions;
(6)
"Members" of a state veterans' home or state soldiers' home;
(7)
Persons employed by an institution of higher learning or community college,
primarily as an incident to and in furtherance of their education or training,
or the education or training of a spouse;
(8)
Employees of an institution of higher learning or community college during the
period of service necessary to establish eligibility for membership in the
retirement plans operated by such institutions;
(9)
Persons rendering professional services to an employer on a fee, retainer, or
contract basis or when the income from these services is less than fifty
percent of the gross income received from the person's practice of a
profession;
(10)
Persons appointed after April 1, 1963, by the liquor control board as agency
vendors;
(11)
Employees of a labor guild, association, or organization: PROVIDED, That
elective officials and employees of a labor guild, association, or organization
which qualifies as an employer within this chapter shall have the option of
applying for membership;
(12)
Retirement system retirees: PROVIDED, That following reemployment in an
eligible position, a retiree may elect to prospectively become a member of the
retirement system if otherwise eligible;
(13)
Persons employed by or appointed or elected as an official of a first class
city that has its own retirement system: PROVIDED, That any member elected or
appointed to an elective office on or after April 1, 1971, shall have the
option of continuing as a member of this system in lieu of becoming a member of
the city system. A member who elects to continue as a member of this system
shall pay the appropriate member contributions and the city shall pay the
employer contributions at the rates prescribed by this chapter. The city shall
also transfer to this system all of such member's accumulated contributions
together with such further amounts as necessary to equal all employee and
employer contributions which would have been paid into this system on account
of such service with the city and thereupon the member shall be granted credit
for all such service. Any city that becomes an employer as defined in RCW
41.40.010(4) as the result of an individual's election under this subsection
shall not be required to have all employees covered for retirement under the
provisions of this chapter. Nothing in this subsection shall prohibit a city
of the first class with its own retirement system from: (a) Transferring all
of its current employees to the retirement system established under this
chapter, or (b) allowing newly hired employees the option of continuing
coverage under the retirement system established by this chapter.
Notwithstanding
any other provision of this chapter, persons transferring from employment with
a first class city of over four hundred thousand population that has its own
retirement system to employment with the state department of agriculture may
elect to remain within the retirement system of such city and the state shall
pay the employer contributions for such persons at like rates as prescribed for
employers of other members of such system;
(14)
Employees who (a) are not citizens of the United States, (b) do not reside in
the United States, and (c) perform duties outside of the United States;
(15)
Employees who (a) are not citizens of the United States, (b) are not covered by
chapter 41.48 RCW, (c) are not excluded from membership under this chapter or
chapter 41.04 RCW, (d) are residents of this state, and (e) make an irrevocable
election to be excluded from membership, in writing, which is submitted to the
director within thirty days after employment in an eligible position;
(16)
Employees who are citizens of the United States and who reside and perform
duties for an employer outside of the United States: PROVIDED, That unless
otherwise excluded under this chapter or chapter 41.04 RCW, the employee may
apply for membership (a) within thirty days after employment in an eligible
position and membership service credit shall be granted from the first day of
membership service, and (b) after this thirty-day period, but membership
service credit shall be granted only if payment is made for the noncredited
membership service under RCW 41.50.165(2), otherwise service shall be from the
date of application;
(17)
The city manager or chief administrative officer of a city or town, other than
a retiree, who serves at the pleasure of an appointing authority: PROVIDED,
That such persons shall have the option of applying for membership within
thirty days from date of their appointment to such positions. Persons serving
in such positions as of April 4, 1986, shall continue to be members in the
retirement system unless they notify the director in writing prior to December
31, 1986, of their desire to withdraw from membership in the retirement
system. A member who withdraws from membership in the system under this
section shall receive a refund of the member's accumulated contributions.
Persons
serving in such positions who have not opted for membership within the
specified thirty days, may do so by paying the amount required under RCW
41.50.165(2) for the period from the date of their appointment to the date of
acceptance into membership;
(18)
Persons enrolled in state-approved apprenticeship programs, authorized under
chapter 49.04 RCW, and who are employed by local governments to earn hours to
complete such apprenticeship programs, if the employee is a member of a
union-sponsored retirement plan and is making contributions to such a
retirement plan or if the employee is a member of a Taft-Hartley retirement
plan.
NEW
SECTION. Sec. 2. A
new section is added to chapter 41.40 RCW under the subchapter heading:
"Provisions applicable to Plan 1 and Plan 2" to read as follows:
(1)
Employers that are organized pursuant to chapter 36.100, 36.102, or 81.112 RCW,
who have become retirement system employers since 1993, and who have previously
excluded some of their employees from retirement system membership pursuant to
the limitation in RCW 41.40.023(4), shall have the option until December 31,
1999, to terminate their status as a retirement system employer with regard to
persons employed after the date of their election.
(2)
If a government unit terminates its status as an employer pursuant to this
section its employees as of the date of the election who are members shall be
eligible to continue their membership in the retirement system, if otherwise
eligible under this chapter, for the duration of their continuous employment
with that employer.
(3)
If a government unit subject to this section does not elect to terminate its
status as a retirement system employer it may either: (a) continue to exclude
from membership those employees who were excluded pursuant to the limitation in
RCW 41.40.023(4) prior to the effective date of this act; or include such
employees in the retirement system, if otherwise eligible under this chapter,
for service rendered on or after the effective date of this act and after the
employer's election.
NEW
SECTION. Sec. 3. A
new section is added to chapter 41.40 RCW under the subchapter heading
"Provisions applicable to Plan 1 and Plan 2" to read as follows:
(1)
When a unit of government has become a retirement system employer, all of its
employees must be included in the plan membership, if otherwise eligible under
this chapter, unless the employee is exempted from membership or qualifies for
optional membership pursuant to RCW 41.40.023 or other provision of this
chapter.
(2) A unit of government which has become a retirement system
employer may not withdraw from the retirement system.
