2011 California Code
Government Code
TITLE 2. GOVERNMENT OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA [8000 - 22980]
ARTICLE 4. Retirement for Service
Section 21370

(a) The combined prior and current service pension for local safety members with respect to service to a contracting agency subject to this section, upon retirement after attaining 56 years of age, is a pension derived from contributions of an employer sufficient, when added to that portion of the service retirement annuity that is derived from the accumulated normal contributions of the member at the date of his or her retirement, to equal one-fiftieth of his or her final compensation set forth opposite his or her age at retirement taken to the preceding completed quarter year in the following table, multiplied by the number of years of service credited to him or her as a local safety member subject to this section at retirement.

(b) Upon retirement for service prior to attaining 56 years of age, the percentage of final compensation payable for each year of credited service that is subject to this section shall be the product of 2 percent multiplied by the factor set forth in the following table for the actual age at retirement:

(c) This section shall apply only to local police officers and county peace officers who are local safety members.

(d) This section shall not apply to persons whose effective date of retirement is prior to January 1, 1985.

(e) The Legislature reserves, with respect to any member subject to this section, the right to provide for the adjustment of industrial disability retirement allowances because of earnings of a retired person and modification of the conditions and qualifications required for retirement for disability as it may find appropriate because of the earlier age of service retirement made possible by the benefits under this section.

(f) The percentage of final compensation provided in this section shall be reduced by one-third as applied to that part of the member s final compensation that does not exceed four hundred dollars ($400) per month for service after the effective date of coverage of a member under the federal system. This paragraph shall not apply to a member who retires after the date upon which coverage under the federal system of persons in his or her employment terminates.

(g) For members who retire prior to January 1, 2000, in no event shall the total pension for all service under this section exceed an amount that, when added to the service retirement annuity related to the service, equals 75 percent of final compensation. For members who retire on or after January 1, 2000, the allowance shall not exceed 85 percent of final compensation. If the pension relates to service for more than one employer and would otherwise exceed the maximum, the pension payable with respect to each employer shall be reduced in the same proportion as the allowance based on service to the employer bears to the total allowance computed as though there were no limit, so that the total of the pensions shall equal the maximum.

(h) This section shall only apply as an optional contributory retirement formula for this system for local safety groups whose group participated in Federal Old Age and Survivors Insurance provisions of the Social Security Act on April 1983.

(i) This section shall not apply to a contracting agency nor its employees until the agency and the representative employee organization agree by memorandum of understanding to be subject to it by amendment to its contract made in the manner prescribed for approval of contracts. It shall also be required that the representative employee organizations agree to be subject to this provision.

(j) The operative date of this section with respect to a local safety member shall be the effective date of the amendment to the employer s contract electing to be subject to this section. However, this section shall not apply to any local safety member in the employ of an employer not subject to this section on January 1, 2000.

(Amended by Stats. 2000, Ch. 135, Sec. 74. Effective January 1, 2001.)