CHAPTER 351

An Act to amend and reenact 8§ 1, 2, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 and 11, as severally
amended, of Chapter 808 of the ‘Acts of Assembly of 1944, approved
March 29, 1944, which provided a system of pensions and retirements
for police departments of certain counties, the amended sections re-
lating to the establishment of a pension board; its powers and duties,
when members can retire; disablement, death, salary deductions and
investment of funds.

{S 149]

Approved April 1, 1966

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:

1. That §§ 1, 2, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 and 11, as severally amended, of Chapter
808 of the Acts of Assembly of 1944, approved March 29, 1944, be amended
and reenacted as follows:

§ 1. The governing body of any county in this State adjoining any
county having a population greater than one thousand inhabitants a square
mile and having a police department with full or part-time paid members
is empowered and authorized to create and establish as hereinafter pro-
vided a board to be known as the “policemen’s pension and retirement
board” of the county, hereinafter referred to as the “board.” The board
when so created shall be a body corporate and shall consist of five mem-
bers, one of whom shall be the * Director of Finance of the county,
who shall also be the treasurer of the board, two of whom shall be elected
by the majority vote of the members of the police department, one for a
term of four years and one for a term of two years, their successors
to be elected for terms of four years each, and two of whom shall be
appointed by the governing body of the county for terms of four years
each, their successors to be appointed for terms of four years each. If a
vacancy occurs in the office of a member of the policemen’s pension and
retirement board of this system, the vacancy shall be filled for the un-
expired term in the same manner as the office was previously filled.

The two members of the “policemen’s pension and retirement board”
appointed by the Board of County Supervisors shall receive compensation
at such rate as the Board of County Supervisors may from time to time
approve.

When any such board is so created and constituted, it shall at its
first meeting annually thereafter elect one member as president and one
as secretary, and it may elect one as vice-president.

Except as otherwise provided in this article, no member or employee
of the policemen’s pension and retirement board shall have any direct
or indirect interest in the gains or profits of any investment made by the
board. No member or employee of the board shall, directly or indirectly,
for himself or as an agent in any manner use the same, except to make
such current and necessary payments as are authorized by the board.

§ 2. The general powers, authority and duties of any such police-
men’s pension and retirement board shall be as follows: (1) To adopt
by-laws, rules and regulations lawful to be made which it deems neces-
sary for the proper conduct of its affairs; (2) To conduct hearings, make
investigations and determine the amount of awards or pensions to be paid
any policeman, or his dependents; (3) To provide for such clerical, legal,
medical and other services as it deems necessary or proper, and provide
for the payment of suitable compensation for such services; (4) To pro-
vide for and require deductions from the salaries of active and paid
members of the police department, and to cause the amounts deducted to
be paid into its treasury as hereinafter specified for its use in the admin-
istration of its affairs; (5) To draw warrants, signed in its name and
countersigned by its president, on its treasurer for the payment of pen-
sions and benefits hereunder and of costs and expenses of administration.
(6) To determine who shall be members of the retirement system.

At least once in each five year period, the board shall cause an
actuarial evaluation to be made.

The board shall designate three physicians who shall be known as the
medical examining board. The duties of the medical examining board
shall be to arrange for and pass upon all medical examinations required
for retirement under this article and to investigate all essential state-
ments and certificates by or on behalf of a member in connection with
application for disability retirement. The members of the medical exam-
ining board shall report in writing to the board their conclusions and
recommendations upon all matters referred to 1.

§ 6. Any member of the police department * as a police officer of
the county who has attained the age of sixty and had twenty-five years
service in the department, shall be retired forthwith by the board on a
service retirement allowance; provided, however, that upon approval of
the board, members employed prior to the effective date of this article
who have not attained twenty-five years service in the department may con-
tinue in service without regard to the compulsory retirement age, until
they have attained twenty-five years service in the department. Any mem-
ber in service at his normal retirement date may retire then or there-
after at any time upon written notification to the board, setting forth at
what time the retirement is to become effective; provided, that such
effective date shall be after his last day of service but shall not be more
than ninety days subsequent to the giving of such notice.
§ 6(a) Any member * of the police department who has completec
twenty years of service in the department as a police officer of the county
shall be eligible to retirement and to receive the pension and benefits
herein specified. Any member, from and after the time he so retires, shal
receive a pension hereunder not to exceed fifty per centum of his annua
salary computed on the basis of the average of his highest three year:
salary, plus two per centum per year for each year of service after twenty
years, but not to exceed sixty per centum of said annual salary in any
such case.

§ 8. If any member becomes disabled as a result of his activities
in the discharge of his official duties he shall receive as pension anc
benefits during the disability and until such time as he would have be
come eligible for retirement a sum not exceeding * sixty per centum of the
salary he would have received had he remained uninjured and continuec
in the performance of his duties. Upon reaching the retirement age he
shall be retired on the age and service pension provided for in § 6 of this
act; however should any policeman be retired on a disability in line oj
duty and receiving a disability allowance die before having twenty-five
years service with the department his dependents shall receive the benefits
as provided for in section five of this act.

Should a beneficiary of a disability retirement allowance return tc
service at any time prior to his normal retirement date, his disability re-
ttrement allowance shall cease and he shall become a member of the system
and shall thereafter contribute. Any service on the basis of which his
disability retirement allowance was computed shall thereafter be countea
as creditable service, provided further the period of disability retirement
for those on service connected disability retirement shall be counted a:
creditable service.

Once each year during the first five years following the retirement
of a member on a disability retirement allowance, and once in every three
year period thereafter, the board shall require any such beneficiary prior
to his normal retirement date to undergo a medical examination. Shoula
such a beneficiary refuse to submit to any such medical examination
his retirement allowance shall be discontinued until his withdrawal of such
refusal, and should his refusal continue for one year, all his rights ta
any further disability allowance shall cease.

Each member shall receive membership service credit for military
leave provided that he returns within ninety days of discharge under
conditions other than dishonorable.

§ 9. Should any such policeman die while in active service, leaving
no dependents, his salary deductions shall remain in the policemen’s pen-
sion and retirement fund. Should any such policeman, who shall have
been separated from the service and whose employment shall have been
terminated otherwise than by death or retirement, he shall, on application
made within two years from the date of such separation, or if separated
prior to January one, nineteen hundred fifty-one, on application made
within four years, be refunded all of his accumulated contributions; pro-
vided, however, that if such policeman has received payments or benefits
under this system, the amount of such payments or benefits shall be
deducted from the amount to be refunded; provided, further, that should
any retired policeman be receiving benefits hereunder at the time of his
death then and in that event his dependents, if any, shall receive the
difference between the total contributions made hereunder by such police
man and any payments received by him and at the same rate at which
such retired policeman was receiving benefits.

* Any full time paid sworn member of the police department whe
retirement allowance herein provided for reduced during his lifetime an
the amount by which such allowance is reduced shall be paid to suc
member’s spouse at the same rate after such police officer's death. Onc
such oe has been made and payment commenced no change shall t
allowed.

§ 10. For the purpose of raising funds for the payment of pensior
and benefits and the costs and expenses of administering the affairs ¢
the board there shall be levied monthly, and deducted from the salarie
of the policemen, * ten and one half per centum of the amounts of the’
salaries and all such amounts so levied and deducted shall be paid int
the treasury of the board. The county board shall contribute to the pensio
fund an amount at least equal to the amount contributed by the policeme!

§ 11. Any and all cash assets and funds on hand at any time n«
necessary for immediate payment of pensions or benefits hereunder sha
be invested in securities that are legal investments under the laws <
the Commonwealth for public sinking funds, or invested in bonds an
negotiable notes directly secured by first lien on improved real estate
farm property in Virginia, the amount of all outstanding bonds or note
so secured not to exceed sixty per centum of the fair market value of tk
real estate and any improvements thereon at the time of making the inves
ment, as ascertained by an appraisal thereof made by two competent, rep
table and disinterested persons.

Any and all funds raised by any policemen’s pension and retiremer
board created under this act for the payment of pensions and benefit
shall be paid over to the treasurer of the board and deposited by hi
to its credit and paid out by him as hereinabove provided.

Should any change or error in the records result in any member ¢
beneficiary receiving from the system more or less than he would hat
been entitled to receive had the records been correct, the board shall har
the power to correct such error, and, as far as practicable, to adjust th
payments in such a manner that the actuarial equivalent of the bene}
to which such member or beneficiary was correctly entitled shall be pat