Public employees’ retirement.

The California Senate Committee on Labor, Public Employment and Retirement proposes comprehensive modifications to the state's public retirement systems, granting the Teachers' Retirement Board final authority over key administrative determinations while refining fiscal transfer schedules and enforcement mechanisms. The legislation redefines how retirement systems classify employers, calculate benefits, and recover overpayments.

The bill establishes new standards for determining annualized pay rates and modifies workload reduction agreements, shifting from time-based metrics to financial thresholds. Under these changes, agreements must be terminated if a member earns less than half of their annualized pay rate. The measure also adjusts fund transfer schedules to account for weekends and holidays, ensuring consistent funding flows to retirement accounts.

For post-retirement employment, the legislation implements stricter reporting requirements and introduces penalties for non-compliance. Employers face fees of $200 per retired member per month for failing to report employment information or pay rates within specified timeframes. The bill also clarifies procedures for recovering benefit overpayments, including provisions for interest charges and administrative costs. These modifications apply across multiple retirement systems, including the State Teachers' Retirement System, Public Employees' Retirement System, and county retirement systems.

The amendments address concurrent membership scenarios between different retirement systems, revising how compensation and service credits are calculated when employees transition between systems or retire from multiple programs simultaneously. For local prosecutors and public defenders, the bill updates provisions regarding safety service classifications while maintaining compliance with pension reform requirements established in 2013.