71st OREGON LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY--2001 Regular Session
Enrolled
Senate Bill 427
Printed pursuant to Senate Interim Rule 213.28 by order of the
President of the Senate in conformance with presession filing
rules, indicating neither advocacy nor opposition on the part
of the President (at the request of Governor John A. Kitzhaber,
M.D., for Oregon Department of Administrative Services)
CHAPTER ................
AN ACT
Relating to contributions to the Public Employees Retirement
System; creating new provisions; and amending ORS 238.015.
Be It Enacted by the People of the State of Oregon:
SECTION 1. ORS 238.015 is amended to read:
238.015. (1) No person may become a member of the system unless
that person is in the service of a public employer and has
completed six months' service uninterrupted by more than 30
consecutive working days during the six months' period. Every
employee of a participating employer shall become a member of the
system at the beginning of the first full pay period of the
employee following the six months' period. { + Employee and
employer contributions for new members shall first be made for
those wages that are attributable to services performed by the
employee during the first full pay period following the six
months' period, without regard to when those wages are considered
earned for other purposes under this chapter. + } All public
employers participating in the Public Employees Retirement System
established by chapter 401, Oregon Laws 1945, as amended, at the
time of repeal of that chapter, and all school districts of the
state, shall participate in, and their employees shall be members
of, the system, except as otherwise specifically provided by law.
(2) Any active member of the Public Employees Retirement System
who, through the annexation of a political subdivision employing
the member or by change of employment, becomes the employee of
another political subdivision which is participating in the
Public Employees Retirement System and has also a separate
retirement system for its employees, shall remain an active
member of the Public Employees Retirement System unless, within
60 days after the effective date of the annexation or change of
employment or April 8, 1953, the member shall by written notice
to the Public Employees Retirement Board and to the
administrative body of the new public employer elect to
relinquish membership in the Public Employees Retirement System
and become a member of the separate retirement system of the
employer, if eligible for membership in that retirement system,
and the member shall be so carried by the new employer.
Immediately upon such annexation of any political subdivision or
such change of employment, the new public employer shall inform
Enrolled Senate Bill 427 (SB 427-INTRO) Page 1
such employee in writing of the right of the employee to exercise
an election as in this section provided.
(3) A political subdivision (other than a school district) not
participating in the retirement system established by chapter
401, Oregon Laws 1945, as amended, which employs one or more
employees, each of whose position requires 600 hours of service
per year, or an agency created by two or more political
subdivisions to provide themselves governmental services, which
employs one or more employees, each of whose position requires
600 hours of service per year, may, through its governing body,
notify the board in writing, that it elects to include its
employees in the system hereby established. Such public employer
may request the board to make a study and estimate of the cost of
including it and its eligible employees, other than volunteer
firefighters, in the system, which the board thereupon shall
cause to be made and the cost of which the employer shall bear.
Upon completion of the study and estimate the employer may apply
for admission to the system, whereupon it shall begin to
participate therein and its eligible employees other than
volunteer firefighters shall become members of the system. If the
employer is an agency created by two or more political
subdivisions to provide themselves governmental services and
ceases thereafter to transmit to the board current service
contributions for any of its eligible employees, the benefits
based upon employer current service contributions to which such
employees would otherwise be entitled shall be reduced
accordingly.
(4) Except as subsection (7) of this section provides otherwise
with reference to volunteer firefighters, no employee whose
position with one public employer or concurrent positions with
two or more public employers normally require less than 600 hours
of service per year may become a member of the system.
(5) No inmate of a state institution or an alien on a training
or educational visa working for any participating employer, even
though the inmate or alien received compensation from a
participating employer, shall be eligible to become a member of
the system. No person employed by a participating employer and
defined by such employer as a student employee is eligible to
become a member of the system for such student employment.
(6) A person holding an elective office or an appointive office
with a fixed term or an office as head of a department to which
the person is appointed by the Governor may become a member of
the system by giving the board written notice of desire to do so
within 30 days after taking the office or, in the event that the
officer is not eligible to become a member of the system at the
time of taking the office, within 30 days after becoming so
eligible. Membership so established shall not be discontinued
during the appointive or elective term of the officer except upon
separation of the officer from service.
(7) A public employer employing volunteer firefighters may
apply to the board at any time for them to become members of the
system. Upon receiving the application the board shall fix a wage
at which, for purposes of this chapter only, they shall be
considered to be employed and which shall be the basis for
computing the amounts of the contributions which they pay into,
and of the benefits which they and their beneficiaries receive
from, the fund; and if the wage so fixed is satisfactory to the
employer, shall include the firefighters in the system.
(8)(a) In the event that an employee enters the service of a
public employer which is participating in or later begins to
Enrolled Senate Bill 427 (SB 427-INTRO) Page 2
participate in the system and in the event that at the time of
entering that service or at the time that the employer begins to
participate in the system the employee has commenced to purchase
and is continuing to purchase a retirement annuity, if the
employer deems the annuity adequate for the purposes of this
chapter it may enter into an agreement with the employee and the
board pursuant to which the employee may be exempted from
contributing to the Public Employees Retirement Fund, and, if no
public funds are being used to purchase the annuity or a
corresponding pension, the employer, in lieu of the contributions
which it otherwise would make to the fund on account of the
employee, may make contributions toward the cost of purchasing
the annuity. Such employee otherwise shall be subject to the
provisions of this chapter, except that neither the employee nor
any person claiming under the employee shall receive any payments
from the retirement fund as service or disability allowance.
(b) An employee who enters into an agreement under paragraph
(a) of this subsection may elect at any time thereafter to start
to participate in the system by giving written notice of desire
to participate to the board and to the employer. The employee
shall receive no retirement credit for the period during which
the employee was exempted from contributing to the fund under the
agreement, but the employee shall be considered to have completed
the six months' service required for membership in the system.
When the employee starts to participate in the system the
employer shall start to contribute to the fund on the account of
the employee in the same manner as the employer contributes on
the account of other employees who are active members of the
system and the employer shall stop making contributions toward
the cost of purchasing the retirement annuity.
(9)(a) All new appointees in the Federal Cooperative Extension
Service or in any other service in which participation in the
Federal Civil Service retirement program is mandatory, who
receive a federal appointment on or after July 1, 1955, may
participate in the Public Employees Retirement System only by
giving written notice of their election to so participate to the
Public Employees Retirement Board within six months after the
effective date of their appointment.
(b) All persons employed by the Federal Cooperative Extension
Service or by any other service in which participation in the
Federal Civil Service retirement program is mandatory, who are
under federal appointment as of July 1, 1955, and who are members
of the state retirement system, shall continue such membership
unless, prior to February 1, 1956, they give written notice to
the Public Employees Retirement Board of their desire to cancel
their membership.
(c) Any person who is an active member of the Public Employees
Retirement System, who, on or after July 1, 1955, is employed by
the Federal Cooperative Extension Service or by any other service
in which participation in the Federal Civil Service retirement
program is mandatory, and who is given a federal appointment,
shall continue such membership in the Public Employees Retirement
System unless, within six months after the effective date of the
appointment, the person gives written notice to the Public
Employees Retirement Board of the desire to cancel membership.
(d) A cancellation of membership under paragraph (b) or (c) of
this subsection terminates membership in the Public Employees
Retirement System and cancels the right to any benefits from, or
claims against, that system. Such cancellation prevents the
withdrawing member from claiming thereafter any retirement credit
Enrolled Senate Bill 427 (SB 427-INTRO) Page 3
for any period of employment before the cancellation. Upon
receipt of a notice of cancellation, the Public Employees
Retirement Board shall refund to the withdrawing member,
regardless of age, the account balance of the employee in the
retirement fund.
(10) Managers and other employees of foreign trade offices of
the Economic and Community Development Department who live and
perform services in foreign countries under the provisions of ORS
285A.090 (13) shall not be members of the system. However, any
person who is an active member of the system immediately before
becoming a manager or employee of a foreign trade office shall
continue to be a member of the system during the period of time
the person serves as a manager or employee of the foreign trade
office.
(11) An employee who is an employee of the Oregon Health
Sciences University may not be an active member of the Public
Employees Retirement System if that employee is participating in
an alternative retirement program established by the university
pursuant to ORS 353.250.
SECTION 2. { + The amendments to ORS 238.015 by section 1 of
this 2001 Act apply to all employer and employee contributions
made on behalf of members of the Public Employees Retirement
System, whether those members first established membership in the
system before, on or after the effective date of this 2001
Act. + }
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Passed by Senate March 27, 2001
...........................................................
Secretary of Senate
...........................................................
President of Senate
Passed by House May 7, 2001
...........................................................
Speaker of House
Enrolled Senate Bill 427 (SB 427-INTRO) Page 4
Received by Governor:
......M.,............., 2001
Approved:
......M.,............., 2001
...........................................................
Governor
Filed in Office of Secretary of State:
......M.,............., 2001
...........................................................
Secretary of State
Enrolled Senate Bill 427 (SB 427-INTRO) Page 5