Mendocino County Municipal Code Ch. 3.08 Retirement

The Board of Supervisors of the County of Mendocino, State of California, does hereby accept the provisions of an Act of the Legislature of the State of California, entitled, "An Act to provide for the creation, establishment, and adjustment with other systems, of a retirement system for employees of the several counties and districts as defined herein, and attachees of municipal courts, consisting of retirement compensation and death benefits," approved June 30th, 1937, being Chapter 677 of the Statutes of 1937; and said Board of Supervisors does hereby by reference adopt and incorporate all and every one of the provisions of said Act of the Legislature as a part of and applicable to, and make all and every one of said provisions a part of and applicable to, the system and schedules of compensation of all officers, and other persons employed by said County whose compensation is fixed by the Board of Supervisors of said County and whose compensation is paid by said County, and all employees and officers of the County of Mendocino now or hereafter established by ordinance article of the Board of Supervisors who are or may hereafter be eligible to the benefits of any retirement system under the provisions of said Act, said Act to become operative January 1st, 1948.

(Ord. No. 310, Sec. 1, adopted 1947.)

Every retirement allowance, optional death allowance, or annual death allowance, (including an allowance payable to a survivor of a member), payable to or on account of any member of the Mendocino Retirement Association or to a superseded system who has been or was retired for service or disability is hereby increased as follows:

(Ord. No. 540, Sec. 1, adopted 1968.)

Pursuant to Section 31874 of the Government Code, the Board of Supervisors of the County of Mendocino does hereby adopt, incorporate by reference, and make applicable in Mendocino County Article 16.5 of the County Employees Retirement Law of 1937, including Section 31870.1 of the Government Code, which authorizes a maximum annual increase or decrease of cost of living allowance of 3 per cent.

(Ord. No. 747A, adopted 1971.)

Pursuant to the authority granted by Article 16.6 of Chapter 3 of Part 3 of Division 4 of Title 3 of the Government Code (commencing with Section 31875), the annual cost of living for retired members is hereby adjusted on a one time basis to provide a cost of living increase which will be equal to the additional percent the retired members would have received had they been receiving five percent (5%) annual cost of living adjustments under Mendocino County Code Section 3.08.030 from April 1, 1975 until March 31, 1981, instead of three percent (3%). The purpose of this ordinance is to provide retired members with a cost of living base for future retirement allowances that will be equal to that which they would have had, had they been receiving five percent (5%) annual cost of living adjustment instead of a three percent (3%) annual cost of living adjustment under Mendocino County Code Section 3.08.030 from April 1, 1975 until March 31, 1981.

(Ord. No. 3308, adopted 1980.)

The Board of Supervisors of the County of Mendocino does hereby adopt, incorporate by reference, and make applicable in Mendocino County Section 31725.5 of the County Employers Retirement Law of 1937, which authorizes reassignment of a disabled member to another position.

(Ord. No. 806, adopted 1971.)

In no event shall any allowance be increased by an amount greater than Fifty Dollars ($50.00) a month or less than Ten Dollars ($10.00) a month.

(Ord. No. 540, Sec. 2, adopted 1968.)

(A) Purpose of Section. The purpose of this Section is to implement the provisions contained in Section 414(h)(2) of the Internal Revenue Code concerning the tax treatment of employee contributions paid by the County on behalf of affected employees. Pursuant to Section 414(h)(2), contributions to a pension plan, although designated under the plan as employee contributions, when paid by the employer in lieu of contributions by the employee, under circumstances in which the employee does not have the option of choosing to receive the contributed amounts directly instead of having them paid by the employer, may be excluded from the gross income of the employee until these amounts are distributed or made available to the employee.

Implementation of Section 414(h)(2) is accomplished through a reduction in wages pursuant to the provisions of this Section.

(B) Definitions. Unless the context otherwise requires, the definitions in this Section govern the construction of this Section.

(1) "Affected employees" means those employees of the County of Mendocino who make employee contributions to the retirement system.

(2) "Employee contributions" means those contributions to the retirement system which are deducted from the salary of employees and credited to individual employees' accounts, or required as a condition of obtaining benefits under the retirement system, including retirement service credit for public service and prior service.

(3) "Employer" means the County of Mendocino.

(4) "Gross income" means the total compensation paid to affected employees by the County as defined in the Internal Revenue Code and rules and regulations established by the Internal Revenue Service.

(5) "Retirement system" means that retirement system as made applicable in Mendocino County under the provisions of the County Employees' Retirement Law of 1937 as amended, and Ordinance No. 310, Sec. 1, passed and adopted in 1947; effective January 1, 1948.

(6) "Wages" means the compensation prescribed in Chapter 3.04 of this Code.

(C) Pickup of Employee Contributions.

(1) Pursuant to the provisions of Subsection (D) of this Section, the employer shall make employee contributions on behalf of affected employees, and such contributions shall be treated as employer contributions in determining tax treatment under the Internal Revenue Code of the United States. Such contributions are being made by the employer in lieu of employee contributions.

(2) Employee contributions made under Paragraph (C)(1) of this Section shall be paid from the same source of funds as used in paying the wages to affected employees.

(3) Employee contributions made by the employer under Paragraph (C)(1) of this Section shall be treated for all purposes other than taxation in the same manner and to the same extent as employee contributions made prior to the effective date of the ordinance codified in this Section.

(4) No provision in this Section shall be construed so as to permit or extend an option to affected employees to directly receive the contributions made by the employer pursuant to Paragraph (C)(1) of this Section instead of having them paid to the retirement system.

(D) Wage Adjustment. Notwithstanding the provisions of Chapter 3.04 of this Code, the wages of affected employees shall be reduced by the amount of employee contribution made by the employer pursuant to the provisions of this Chapter.

(E) Limitations to Operability. This Section shall be operative only as long as the County pickup of employee contributions continues to be excludable from gross income of the employee under provisions of the Internal Revenue Code.

(Ord. No. 3633, Sec. 1, adopted 1986.)

(A) County Employees. Any County employee who has accrued sick leave at the time of application for retirement is entitled to have credited one hundred percent (100%) of unused sick leave toward the employee's total County service for the purpose of calculating the retirement benefit. The amount of sick leave accrued as of the day of retirement shall in no case be used in calculating the minimum County service required to be eligible for County retirement.

(B) Elected Officials. Elected officials who accrued sick leave during County service, as employees, immediately prior to taking office are entitled to have credited one hundred percent (100%) of unused sick leave toward their retirement benefit. The amount of sick leave accrued as of the day of retirement shall in no case be used in calculating the minimum County service required to be eligible for County retirement.

(C) This Section shall be effective December 31, 1986.

(Ord. No. 3637, Sec. 2, adopted 1987.)

The provisions of Section 31641.04 of the Government Code relating to additional retirement service credit for certain members of the County of Mendocino Employees Retirement Association shall be applicable to such members in accordance with any resolution of the Board of Supervisors adopted pursuant to Government Code Section 31641.04.

(Ord. No. 3810, adopted 1992.)

The provisions of section 31641.05 of the Government Code relating to granting up to four (4) years of additional retirement service credit for certain members of the County of Mendocino Employees Retirement Association who already have ten (10) or more years of service shall be applicable to such members in accordance with any resolution of the Board of Supervisors adopted pursuant to Government Code Section 31641.05.

(Ord. No. 4022, Sec. 1, adopted 1998.)