2005 Arizona Revised Statutes - Revised Statutes §38-881  Definitions

(L06, Ch. 264, sec. 13 & Ch. 308, sec. 1)

In this article, unless the context otherwise requires:

1. "Accidental disability" means a physical or mental condition that the local board finds totally and permanently prevents an employee from performing a reasonable range of duties within the employee's department, was incurred in the performance of the employee's duties and was the result of any of the following:

(a) Physical contact with inmates, prisoners, parolees or persons on probation.

(b) Responding to a confrontational situation with inmates, prisoners, parolees or persons on probation.

(c) A job related motor vehicle accident while on official business for the employee's employer. A job related motor vehicle accident does not include an accident that occurs on the way to or from work. Persons found guilty of violating a personnel rule, a rule established by the employee's employer or a state or federal law in connection with a job related motor vehicle accident do not meet the conditions for accidental disability.

2. "Accumulated member contributions" means the sum of all member contributions deducted from a member's salary and paid to the fund, plus member contributions transferred to the fund by another retirement plan covering public employees of this state, plus previously withdrawn accumulated member contributions which are repaid to the fund in accordance with this article, minus any benefits paid to or on behalf of a member.

3. "Average monthly salary" means one-thirty-sixth of the aggregate amount of salary that is paid a member by a participating employer during a period of thirty-six consecutive months of service in which the member received the highest salary within the last one hundred twenty months of service. Average monthly salary means the aggregate amount of salary that is paid a member divided by the member's months of service if the member has less than thirty-six months of service. In the computation under this paragraph, a period of nonpaid or partially paid industrial leave shall be considered based on the salary the employee would have received in the employee's job classification if the employee was not on industrial leave.

4. "Beneficiary" means an individual who is being paid or who has entitlement to the future payment of a pension on account of a reason other than the individual's membership in the retirement plan.

5. "Claimant" means a member, beneficiary or estate that files an application for benefits with the retirement plan.

6. "Credited service" means credited service transferred to the retirement plan from another retirement system or plan for public employees of this state, plus those compensated periods of service as a member of the retirement plan for which member contributions are on deposit in the fund.

7. "Designated position" means:

(a) For a county:

(i) A county detention officer.

(ii) A nonuniformed employee of a sheriff's department whose primary duties require direct contact with inmates.

(b) For the state department of corrections and the department of juvenile corrections, only the following specifically designated positions:

(i) Food service.

(ii) Nursing personnel.

(iii) Corrections physician assistant.

(iv) Therapist.

(v) Corrections dental assistant.

(vi) Hygienist.

(vii) Corrections medical assistant.

(viii) Correctional service officer, including assistant deputy warden, deputy warden, warden and superintendent.

(ix) State correctional program officer.

(x) Parole or community supervision officers.

(xi) Investigators.

(xii) Teachers.

(xiii) Institutional maintenance workers.

(xiv) Youth corrections officer.

(xv) Youth program officer.

(xvi) Behavioral health treatment unit managers.

(xvii) The director and assistant directors of the department of juvenile corrections and the superintendent of the state educational system for committed youth.

(xviii) The director, deputy directors and assistant directors of the state department of corrections.

(xix) Other positions designated by the local board of the state department of corrections or the local board of the department of juvenile corrections pursuant to section 38-891, subsection E.

(c) For a city or town, a city or town detention officer.

(d) For an employer of an eligible group as defined in section 38-842, full-time dispatchers.

(e) For the judiciary, probation, surveillance and juvenile detention officers.

8. "Employee" means a person determined by the local board to be employed by a participating employer in a designated position.

9. "Employer" means an agency or department of this state or a political subdivision of this state which has one or more employees in a designated position.

10. "Fund" means the corrections officer retirement plan fund.

11. "Fund manager" means the fund manager of the public safety personnel retirement system.

12. "Juvenile detention officer" means a juvenile detention officer responsible for the direct custodial supervision of juveniles who are detained in a county juvenile detention center.

13. "Local board" means the retirement board of the employer that consists of persons appointed or elected to administer the plan as it applies to the employer's members in the plan.

14. "Member" means any employee who meets all of the following qualifications:

(a) Who is a full-time paid person employed by a participating employer in a designated position.

(b) Who is receiving salary for personal services rendered to a participating employer or would be receiving salary except for an authorized leave of absence.

(c) Whose customary employment is at least forty hours each week and for more than six months in a calendar year.

15. "Normal retirement date" means the first day of the calendar month immediately following an employee's completion of twenty years of service or, in the case of a dispatcher, twenty-five years of service, the employee's sixty-second birthday and completion of ten years of service or the month in which the sum of the employee's age and years of credited service equals eighty.

16. "Participating employer" means an employer which the fund manager has determined to have one or more employees in a designated position or a county, city or town which has entered into a joinder agreement pursuant to section 38-902.

17. "Pension" means a series of monthly payments by the retirement plan.

18. "Probation or surveillance officer" means an officer appointed pursuant to section 8-203, 12-251 or 12-259 but does not include other personnel, office assistants or support staff.

19. "Retired member" means an individual who is being paid a pension on account of the individual's membership in the retirement plan.

20. "Retirement" means termination of employment after a member has fulfilled all requirements for a pension.

21. "Retirement plan" or "plan" means the corrections officer retirement plan established by this article.

22. "Salary" means the base salary, shift differential pay and holiday pay paid a member in a designated position for personal services rendered to a participating employer on a regular monthly, semimonthly or biweekly payroll basis. Salary includes amounts that are subject to deferred compensation or tax shelter agreements. Salary does not include payment for any remuneration or reimbursement other than as prescribed by this paragraph. For the purposes of this paragraph, "base salary" means the amount of compensation each member is regularly paid for personal services rendered to an employer before the addition of any extra monies, including overtime pay, shift differential pay, holiday pay, fringe benefit pay and similar extra payments.

23. "Service" means employment rendered to a participating employer as an employee in a designated position. Any absence that is authorized by an employer, including any periods during which the employee is on an employer sponsored long-term disability program, is considered as service if the employee returns or is deemed by the employer to have returned to a designated position within the period of the authorized absence.

24. "Total and permanent disability" means a physical or mental condition that is not an accidental disability, that the local board finds totally and permanently prevents a member from engaging in any gainful employment and that is the direct and proximate result of the member's performance of the member's duty as an employee of a participating employer.