Senate Bill No. 263
(By Senators Anderson and Wagner)
____________
[Introduced March 3, 1993; referred to the Committee
on the Judiciary; and then to the Committee on Finance.]
____________
A BILL to amend and reenact section fourteen, article ten,
chapter five of the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine
hundred thirty-one, as amended, relating to retirement
credit for constables and magistrates who served as justices
of the peace.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That section fourteen, article ten, chapter five of the code
of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as
amended, be amended and reenacted to read as follows:
ARTICLE 10. WEST VIRGINIA PUBLIC EMPLOYEES RETIREMENT ACT.
§5-10-14. Service credit.
(a) The board of trustees shall credit each member with the
prior service and contributing service to which he is entitled
based upon such rules and regulations as the board of trustees
shall from time to time adopt: Provided, That in no case shall
less than ten days of service rendered by a member in any
calendar month be credited as a month of service; nor shall lessthan ten months of service rendered in any calendar year be
credited as a year of service; nor shall more than one year of
service be credited any member for all service rendered by him in
any calendar year; nor shall any member who was not in the employ
of a political subdivision within a period of thirty years
immediately preceding the date the political subdivision became
a participating public employer be credited with prior service:
Provided, however, That said member is not required to have been
employed by a participating public employer of this state within
a period of fifteen years subsequent to the date that
participating public employer elected to become a participating
employer.
(b) The board of trustees shall grant service credit to
employees of boards of health, the clerk of the House of
Delegates and the clerk of the state Senate, or to any former and
present member of the state teachers retirement system who have
been contributing members for more than three years, for service
previously credited by the state teachers retirement system, and
shall require the transfer of the member's contributions to the
system, and shall also require a deposit, with interest, of any
withdrawals of contributions any time prior to said member's
retirement. Repayment of withdrawals shall be as directed by the
board of trustees.
(c) Court reporters who are acting in an official capacity,
although paid by funds other than the county commission or state
auditor, may receive prior service credit for such time as servedin such capacity.
(d) Employees of the state Legislature whose term of
employment is otherwise classified as temporary and who are
employed to perform services required by the Legislature for its
regular sessions or during the interim between regular sessions
and who have been or are so employed during regular sessions or
during the interim between sessions for eight or more years, may
receive service credit for such the time as served in that
capacity.
(e) Former justices of the peace and constables who continue
to actively serve as employees or elected officials of state or
local governments that are participating public employers shall
be entitled to credit for retirement purposes for those years of
service as a justice of the peace or constable: Provided, That
they have a minimum of five years contributing service and they
compensate the retirement fund as set forth in this subsection.
It is the finding of the Legislature that many city council
members were granted credit for years of prior service by
compensating the retirement fund, employer's share and employee's
share, plus interest, based on salaries of one thousand dollars
a year. The Legislature further finds that salaries of former
justices of the peace and constables are difficult to ascertain
and therefore establishes that for purposes of obtaining credit
for their prior service in accordance with the provisions of this
section the amount of required compensation to the retirement
fund with respect to each constable is based on a salary of twothousand dollars a year and with respect to each justice of the
peace a salary of three thousand dollars a year.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to give prior service
credit to former justices of the peace and constables with five
or more years of contributing service for compensation to the
retirement fund. Annual salary credit for justices of the peace
is established at $3000.00; and for constables at $2000.00.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken
from the present law, and underscoring indicates new language
that would be added.