_______________________________________________
SUBSTITUTE
HOUSE BILL 2895
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Passed
Legislature - 2002 Regular Session
State
of Washington 57th Legislature 2002 Regular Session
By
Read
first time 02/07/2002. Referred to Committee on .
Allowing port employees to join more than one retirement
plan subject to a labor agreement.
AN
ACT Relating to allowing port employees to join more than one retirement plan
subject to a labor agreement; and amending RCW 53.08.170.
BE IT
ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:
Sec.
1. RCW
53.08.170 and 1991 sp.s. c 30 s 22 are each amended to read as follows:
The
port commission shall have authority to create and fill positions, to fix
wages, salaries and bonds thereof, to pay costs and assessments involved in
securing or arranging to secure employees, and to establish such benefits for
employees, including holiday pay, vacations or vacation pay, retirement and
pension benefits, medical, surgical or hospital care, life, accident, or health
disability insurance, and similar benefits, already established by other
employers of similar employees, as the port commissioner shall by resolution
provide: PROVIDED, That any district providing insurance benefits for its
employees in any manner whatsoever may provide health and accident insurance,
life insurance with coverage not to exceed that provided district employees, and
business related travel, liability, and errors and omissions insurance, for its
commissioners, which insurance shall not be considered to be compensation.
Subject
to chapter 48.62 RCW, the port commission shall have authority to provide or
pay such benefits directly, or to provide for such benefits by the purchase of
insurance policies or entering into contracts with and compensating any person,
firm, agency or organization furnishing such benefits, or by making
contributions to vacation plans or funds, or health and welfare plans and
funds, or pension plans or funds, or similar plans or funds, already
established by other employers of similar employees and in which the port
district is permitted to participate for particular classifications of its employees
by the trustees or other persons responsible for the administration of such
established plans or funds: PROVIDED FURTHER, That no port district employee
shall be allowed to apply for admission to or be accepted as a member of the
state employees' retirement system after January 1, 1965, if admission to such
system would result in coverage under both a private pension system and the
state employees' retirement system, it being the purpose of this proviso that
port districts shall not at the same time contribute for any employee to both a
private pension or retirement plan and to the state employees' retirement
system. The port commission shall have authority by resolution to utilize and
compensate agents for the purpose of paying, in the name and by the check of
such agent or agents or otherwise, wages, salaries and other benefits to
employees, or particular classifications thereof, and for the purpose of
withholding payroll taxes and paying over tax moneys so withheld to appropriate
government agencies, on a combined basis with the wages, salaries, benefits, or
taxes of other employers or otherwise; to enter into such contracts and
arrangements with and to transfer by warrant such funds from time to time to
any such agent or agents so appointed as are necessary to accomplish such
salary, wage, benefit, or tax payments as though the port district were a
private employer, notwithstanding any other provision of the law to the
contrary. The funds of a port district transferred to such an agent or agents for
the payment of wages or salaries of its employees in the name or by the check
of such agent or agents shall be subject to garnishment with respect to
salaries or wages so paid, notwithstanding any provision of the law relating to
municipal corporations to the contrary.
Notwithstanding
any provision in this section, the governing body of a port district may enter
into an agreement in writing with one or more of its officers or employees or a
group of such officers and employees, authorizing deductions from the officer's
or employee's salary or wages of the amount of any premium specified in writing
by the officer or employee, for contribution to any private pension plan,
without loss of eligibility for membership in the state employees' retirement
system, and may agree to remit that amount to the management of such private
pension plan. However, no port district funds shall be contributed or paid to
such private plan. When such authorized deductions are certified by the port
commission to the port district's auditor, the auditor shall draw and issue a
proper warrant or warrants, or check or checks if that method of payment is
authorized by statute, directly to and in favor of the person, firm,
corporation, or organization named in the authorization, for the total amount
authorized to be deducted from the payroll, together with a list identifying
the officers and employees for whom the payment is made.
Nothing
in this section may be invoked to invalidate any private pension plan or any
public or private contributions or payments thereto, or exclude members of any
such private pension plan from membership in the state employees' retirement
system, if such private plan was in operation on December 31, 2001.
