SB 660: Public employees’ retirement systems: California Public Retirement System Agency Cost and Liability Panel.

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. Existing law prescribes various definitions of final compensation based on employment classification, bargaining unit, date of hire, and date of retirement, among other things. PERL authorizes public agencies to join PERS and prescribes the rights and duties of agencies participating in PERS.

Existing law authorizes PERS to enter into agreements with specified public retirement systems to establish reciprocity between PERS and those public retirement systems. Existing law provides that an agency that has entered into an agreement establishing reciprocity with PERS is deemed to have obtained the same rights and limitations that apply to all other public agencies that have entered into similar reciprocal agreements with PERS.

This bill would establish the California Public Retirement System Agency Cost and Liability Panel, located in the Controllers office, with members as defined. The bill would assign responsibilities to the panel related to retirement benefit costs, including determining how costs and unfunded liability are apportioned to a public agency when a member changes employers within the same public retirement system or when a member concurrently retires with 2 or more retirement systems that have entered into reciprocity agreements. The bill would require the panel to meet no later than March 31, 2024, and quarterly beginning on April 1, 2024, and to submit a report to the Legislature, no later than December 31, 2024, providing information regarding the financial impact a public agency assumes when an employee transfers to another public agency within the same retirement system or when an employee transfers to a public agency in a reciprocal retirement system and concurrently retires under 2 or more systems.