AMENDED IN SENATE JUNE 18, 2020

AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY JANUARY 23, 2020

AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY APRIL 22, 2019

AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY APRIL 1, 2019

CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE— 2019–2020 REGULAR SESSION

93

CHAPTER 65

Statutes of 2020

[ Approved by Governor September 11, 2020. Filed with Secretary of State September 11, 2020. ]

Introduced by Assembly Member Mark Stone

February 21, 2019

An act to add Section 20508.5 to the Government Code, relating to public employees’ retirement.

Vote: majority   Appropriation: no   Fiscal committee: yes   Local program: no

LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL’S DIGEST

Existing law, the Public Employees’ Retirement Law (PERL), establishes the Public Employees’ Retirement System (PERS), which provides a defined benefit to members of the system based on final compensation, credited service, and age at retirement, subject to certain variations. PERL authorizes any public agency to make its employees members of PERS by contract. Under existing law, when a contracting agency is succeeded by another agency, the successor agency may become a contracting agency of PERS. Existing law provides that if the successor agency contracts with PERS, the contract of the former agency shall merge with the contract of the succeeding agency.

This bill would authorize a successor agency for the Central Fire Protection District and the Aptos/La Selva Fire Protection District to provide employees the defined benefit plan or formula that those employees received from their respective employer prior to the consolidation.

This bill would make legislative findings and declarations as to the necessity of a special statute for the County of Santa Cruz.

The people of the State of California do enact as follows:

SECTION 1.

Section 20508.5 is added to the Government Code, to read:

20508.5.

On and after June 30, 2020, a successor agency, pursuant to Section 20508, for the Central Fire Protection District and the Aptos/La Selva Fire Protection District may provide employees the defined benefit plan or formula that those employees received from their respective employer prior to the consolidation. The successor agency shall designate the surviving contract within 180 days of the consolidation.

SEC. 2.

The Legislature finds and declares that a special statute is necessary and that a general statute cannot be made applicable within the meaning of Section 16 of Article IV of the California Constitution because of the unique need to consolidate fire protection districts in the County of Santa Cruz to remove redundancies while continuing fire and emergency response services.