H.
B.
4497
(By Delegates Preece, Ellis, Heck, McGraw and H. White)
[Introduced February 16, 1994; referred to the
Committee on Pensions and Retirement then 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 granting prior service credit to former justices of the peace and constables who have five or more years of contributing service for retirement purposes.
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 or she is entitled based upon such rules as the board of trustees shall from time to time adopt:
Provided,
That in no case shall ten days of service rendered by a member in any calendar month be credited as a month of service; nor shall less than 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 public 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 served in 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 the regular sessions or during the interim between sessions for eight or more years, may receive service credit for such time as served in that capacity.
(e) Former justices of the peace and former constables who continue to actively serve as employees or elected officials of state or of local governments that are members of the public employees retirement system, 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:
Provided, however,
That 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 and employee's share, plus interest, based on salaries of less than one thousand dollars per 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 herein the amount of required compensation to the retirement fund, with respect to each justice of the peace, is based on a salary of three thousand dollars per year and a salary of two thousand dollars per year for each constable.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to give prior service credit to former justices of the peace and former constables with five or more years of contributing service for compensation to the retirement fund in the case of justices of the peace, based on an annual salary of three thousand dollars per year, and in the case of constables based upon an annual salary of two thousand dollars per year.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken from the present law, and underscoring indicates new language that would be added.