Chap. 408.—An ACT to provide for the establishment, maintenance and administra-
tion of a system of pensions and retirements for the benefit of the personnel of
police departments of counties, cities or towns having paid members of such
departments; to provide for the creation of policemen’s pension and retirement
boards and prescribe their powers and duties; to provide for assessments against
and deductions from salaries to raise funds for purposes of said boards; and to
repeal all acts and parts of acts inconsistent therewith. (H B 170]

Approved April 1, 1940

1. Beit enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia as follows:

Section 1. Each or any county, city, or town in this State, having
a police department with full or part time paid members, shall have
authority to create and establish, in the manner hereinafter provided,
a board to be known as the ‘‘policemen’s pension and retirement
board”’ of such county, city, or town, and any such board, when so
created, shall be a body corporate and shall consist of five members,
one of whom shall be the treasurer of the county, city, or town, and
who shall also be the treasurer of said board; two of whom shall be
elected by the majority vote of the said members of such police de-
partment, one for a term of four years and one for a term of two years,
and all successors in office of the one elected for two years, shall be
elected for terms of four years; and two shall be appointed by the
board of supervisors or other governing body of the county, or the
council or other governing body of the city or town, as the case may
be, for terms of four years.

When any such board shall be so created and constituted, it shall,
at its first meeting, and annually thereafter, elect one of the members
as president and one as secretary, and may also elect a vice-president.

Section 2. The general powers, authority and duties of any such
policemen’s pension and retirement board shall be as follows:

(a) To make and adopt by-laws, rules and regulations lawful to
be made, which said board may deem necessary for the proper conduct
of its affairs;

(b) To provide for such clerical, legal, medical and other services
as said board may deem necessary or proper, and provide for the pay-
ment of suitable compensation for such services;

(c) To provide for, and require, deductions from the salaries of
active and paid members of such police department and cause the
same to be paid into the treasury of said board, certain percentages
of salaries, as hereinafter specified, for the purpose of raising funds
for the necessary purposes of said board in the administration of its
affairs.

(d) Draw warrants on the treasurer of the board, for the pay-
ment of pensions and benefits hereunder, and costs and expenses of
administration, which warrants shall be signed in the name of said
board and countersigned by its president.

Section 3. The treasurer of said board shall be the custodian of
all the funds and securities of the board, and shall give bond, payable
to the board, in such amount and with such surety as may be required
by the board, conditioned for the faithful performance of his duties
and the proper accounting for all funds and securities coming into
his hands, the cost of said bond to be paid out of the funds of the board;
and he shall disburse the funds of the board on warrants drawn on
him by the board, and signed and countersigned as hereinabove pro-
vided for. !

Section 4. The time of service of any member of such police de-
partment, prior to the passage of this act, shall be computed to the
credit of his service record, but the amount of pension to be paid such
member under the provisions of this act shall be that proportion of the
amounts provided for by this act, which the time of service of such
member serving under the provisions of this act, at the time of his
retirement, or disability, bears to twenty years.

Section 5. Where any such policeman loses his life while in the
discharge of his official duties, there shall be paid to his widow, if he
leaves a widow, until her death, or remarriage, a pension of not less
than one-half of such policeman’s salary at the time of his death, nor
more than one hundred and twenty-five dollars per month.

Section 6. Any member of such police department, upon his
having completed twenty years of service in the department, and has
attained the age of fifty years, shall be eligible to retirement and to
receive the pension and benefits hereinafter specified. Any such mem-
ber, from and after the time he shall so retire, shall receive a pension
hereunder, equal to fifty per centum of his annual salary, computed
on the basis of the last three years of his service; and an additional
amount equal to two per centum of the salary of such member for
each year of service after he has attained the age of fifty years, and
after he has served in the department for twenty years.

Section 7. Any such member disabled on account of natural cause
or causes not originating in the performance of his official duties, shall
receive a minimum sum equal to ten per centum of his salary, during
such disability, if he becomes a disability beneficiary at any time
during his first five years of service, and an additional amount equal
to two per centum of his salary for each additional year of service
over five years, but at no time shall said amount exceed one-half of his
salary.

Section 8. If any such member shall become disabled as a result
of his activities in the discharge of his official duties, he shall receive
as pension and benefits during such disability, the sum of not less
than sixty-six and two-thirds per centum of his salary until such time
as he would have become eligible to retirement, had he remained un-
injured and continued in the performance of his duties, and he would
then be retired on the age and service pension as provided for in
section six of this act.

Section 9. Should any such policeman die while in active service,
leaving no dependents, his salary deductions shall be payable to his
estate. Should any such policeman be separated from the service
before becoming eligible for pension, seventy-five per centum of salary
deductions shall be returnable to him. , |

Section 10. For the purpose of raising funds for the payment of
such pensions and benefits, and the costs and expenses of administering
the affairs of the board, there shall be levied semi-annually, and de-
ducted from the salaries of such policemen, three per centum of the
amounts of their salaries, and all such amounts so levied and deducted
shall be paid into the treasury of the board.

‘Section 11. Any and all cash assets and funds on hand at any
time, not necessary for immediate payment of pensions or benefits
hereunder, shall be invested in United States bonds, or bonds of the
State of Virginia or of any political subdivision thereof. Any and
all funds raised by any policemen’s pension and retirement board
created under this act, for the payment of pensions and benefits, shall
be paid over to the treasurer of such board and deposited by him to
the credit of the board, and paid out by him as hereinbefore provided.

Section 12. At any time after the effective date of this act, any
such county, city or town having a police department whose members
are paid full or part time salaries, may come under the provisions of this
act and have such a policemen’s pension and retirement board, if and
when the board of supervisors or other governing body of the county,
or the council or other governing body of the city or town, shall so
order by a resolution approved by a majority of all the members
thereof, by a recorded yea and nay vote. Upon the adoption of such
resolution, a policemen’s pension and retirement board may be con-
stituted and organized as hereinbefore provided for, and when so
constituted and organized, shall be vested with all the powers and
authority, and charged with all the duties hereinbefore prescribed ; and
an appeal of right shall lie from the action of such board on any matter
in which the board is given discretionary power, to the circuit court
of the county or corporation or hustings court of the city within whose
jurisdiction said board may be.

Section 12-a. The provisions of this act shall not apply to or
affect any city having a population of not less than one hundred
thousand nor more than one hundred seventy thousand according to
the last preceding United States census. The provisions of this act
shall not apply to any county, city or town in this State having in
operation on the date this act becomes effective any system of pen-
sions or retirement benefits for members of its police department,
unless the governing bodies of said city, county or town shall elect to
come under the provisions of this act.

Section 13. If any section, clause or phrase of this act shall for
any reason be held unconstitutional, such holding shall not affect the
validity of the remaining portions thereof.