Other LanguagesImpact of House Bill No. 543 on LEFF membership under merged police and fire department.
RCW 41.20.050 and .060 provide that a retired police officer will receive a pension equal to 50 percent of the amount of salary at any time attached to the position held at the date of retirement. If a city creates a new step in its civil service classification and advances all officers at the next lower step to the new step, an officer who retired at that next lower step will receive a pension equal to 50 percent of the salary attached to the new step.
(1) In the event that the legislature amends the statutes governing the Public Employees' Retirement System (PERS) by increasing post-retirement benefits in such a manner as will require all employers, including local taxing districts, to make increased employer contributions to the retirement system, the provisions of section 6(1) of Initiative 62 will not require the state to reimburse those taxing districts for such increased contributions.(2) If the legislature amends the statutes governing the Teachers' Retirement System (TRS) in such a manner as to require that local school districts make some form of "employers' contribution" to the system, the provisions of section 6(1) of Initiative 62 will likewise not require the state to reimburse those local school districts for such contributions; however, such legislation could cause section 6(3) of the initiative to become applicable unless the full cost to the school district resulting from the legislation is, in turn, covered by state funding in accordance with Wash. Const., Art. IX, section 1.(3) If the legislature acts to require that persons seeking to be employed as municipal fire fighters or law enforcement officers meet minimum medical and health standards in order to become eligible for such employment, and the taxing districts by which those personnel are employed thereby incur additional costs either in establishing or implementing such standards, the state will not be required by section 6(1) of Initiative 62 to reimburse those taxing districts for such costs.
Where the actuary employed by either the public employees' or teachers' retirement boards reports that the required employer (in the case of PERS) or legislative (in the case of TRS) contribution rate, expressed as a percentage of salary, is now less than or the same as that required at the time of the enactment of chapters 189 and 190, Laws of 1973, 1st Ex. Sess., either of those boards will have a proper basis to find that cost-of-living pension increases "have been met" by an existing growth in the assets of the system over that required to meet the actuarial liability of the system at that time ‑ and thereupon grant such increases in accordance with RCW 41.40.195(5) or RCW 41.32.499(6), as the case may be.
RCW 41.26.060(8) authorizes the Director of Retirement Systems to fix the amount of interest to be credited to members' accumulated contributions at a rate which shall be based upon the net annual earnings of the fund. This statute permits the Director to credit interest to members' accumulated contributions. However, it does not require the Director to credit interest to members' accumulated contributions in the amount of the actual net earnings of the invested funds.
The sixty percent maximum of final average salary, as provided in § 3, chapter 120, Laws of 1974, 1st Ex. Sess., may not constitutionally be applied to the presently active members of LEOFF.
Explanation of options available to the Northwest Air Pollution Authority regarding pension or retirement coverage for its employees under (a) federal social security, (b) the Washington Public Employees Retirement System and (c) a tax-deferred annuity program or similar contractual pension plan.
(1) The legislature can require those cities which desire not to have their employees covered by a state pension system to establish and maintain a local, municipal pension system for all of their law enforcement officers and fire fighters who are currently members of the state law enforcement officers' and fire fighters' retirement system (LEOFF), as codified in chapter 41.26 RCW. (2) In the event a city determines to stay out of a proposed state pension system, the city may, in the event that it is currently operating a pension system of its own for its general, municipal employees, include within the coverage of that system any new fire fighters or law enforcement officers employed by it after the effective date of a state law which disqualifies all such newly employed fire fighters or law enforcement officers from coverage under the LEOFF system.
(1) The city council of a city which has covered its paid firemen under the pension provisions of chapters 41.16 and 41.18 RCW is not authorized to review, amend or reject a claim for a pension which has been allowed by the firemen's pension board for the city involved. (2) Where a paid fireman is disabled as a result of an injury incurred while in the performance of his duties as a fireman, (a) if coverage is under chapter 41.16 RCW, the municipal pension board is required to provide medical, hospital and nursing care in connection with the disability for such period as the board deems proper; (b) if coverage is under chapter 41.18 RCW, the municipal pension board is required to provide medical, hospital and nursing care in connection with the disability as long as the disability exists; (c) however, in neither case should the board be regarded as liable for any and all medical, hospital and nursing costs incurred by the disabled fireman without regard to whether the fireman has made a prior application and received prior approval in accordance with established procedures.
Neither RCW 41.26.130(4) nor anything contained in the state Industrial Insurance Act preclude a Plan I LEOFF member who is on disability leave because of injuries sustained in the performance of some other employment from simultaneously receiving a disability leave allowance under RCW 41.26.120 and workers' compensation benefits in accordance with Title 51 RCW.