Chap. 344.—An ACT to amend Chapter 325 of the Acts of the General Assembly
of 1942, approved March 31, 1942, relating to the establishment of a contribu-
tory retirement system for certain State employees and for public school teachers
and certain other employees of local public school boards, by inserting a new
section numbered 24-a, providing for the voluntary participation in such system
of such political subdivisions of the Commonwealth as shall elect to have their
employees covered by such system, the expense on account thereof being’ paid
by the political subdivisions so electing. [H 309]

Approved March 30, 1944
Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:

1. That chapter three hundred and twenty-five of the Acts of the
General Assembly of nineteen hundred and forty-two, approved March
thirty-first, nineteen hundred and forty-two, be amended by inserting
a new section numbered twenty-four-a, as follows:

Section 24-a. Participation of local political subdivisions in the State
Retirement System.—(1) The Board of Supervisors of any county and
the council of any city or town, may, by resolution legally adopted and
approved by the Board, elect to have its officers and employees become
eligible to participate in the retirement system. After such election and
approval such body shall thereafter be known for the purposes of this
chapter as an employer. Acceptance of the employees of such an em-
ployer for membership in the retirement system shall be optional with
the Board and if it shall approve their participation, then such officers
and employees may become members of the retirement system and par-
ticipate therein as provided in the provisions of this section. Notwith-
standing anything to the contrary, employees of such employer who are
members of any retirement, pension or benefit fund partially or wholly
supported by public funds shall not be entitled to become members of
the retirement system on that part of his compensation covered by such
fund except as provided under subsection (4) of this section.

(2) Membership in the retirement system for officers and employees
who are admitted as provided in subsection (1) of this section shall be
optional with such officers and employees in the service on the date the
approval is given, and any such officer or employee who elects to join the
retirement system within one calendar year thereafter shall be entitled
to a prior service certificate covering such periods of previous service
as shall be certified as creditable service by his employer for service
rendered to such employer, or his predecessor, or the State, or in any
other capacity approved by the employer and the Board, for which the
employer is willing to make accrued liability contributions. Thereafter
service for such employer on account of which the employer pays con-
tributions, shall be considered also as creditable service.

(3) Membership shall be compulsory for all employees entering the
service of such employer thereafter.

(4) Should a majority of the members of any retirement, pension or
annuity fund, benevolent association, or retirement system of any em-
plover, hereafter referred to as a local pension system, elect to become
members of the retirement system, by a petition duly signed by such
members, the participation of such members in the retirement system
may be approved as provided in subsection (1) of this section as though
such local pension system were not in operation, and the provisions ot
this section shall thereupon apply, except that the existing pensioners or
annuitants of the local pension system who were being paid pensions
on the date of the approval shall be continued and paid at their exist-
ing rates by the retirement system and the liability on this account shall
be included in the computation of the accrued liability rate as provided
by subsection (6) of this section. Any cash and securities to the credit
of the local pension system shall be transferred to the retirement system
as of the date of approval. The trustees or other administrative head
of the local pension system as of the date of the approval shall certify the
proportion if any of the funds of the svstem that represents the accumu-
lated contributions of the members, and the relative shares of the mem-
bers as of that date. Such shares shall be credited to the respective em-
ployee annuity savings accounts of such members in the retirement sys-
tem. The balance of the funds transferred to the retirement system,
shall be offset against the accrued liability before determining the special
accrued liability contribution to be paid by the employer as provided by
subsection (6) of this section. The operation of the local pension sys-
tem shall be discontinued as of the date of the approval.

(5) The chief fiscal officer of the employer, and the heads of its
departments, shall submit to the Board such information and shall cause
to be performed in respect to the employees of said employer such duties
as shall be prescribed by the Board in order to carry out the provisions
of this chapter.

(6) The actuary of the retirement system shall compute the rates
of contribution payable by employees who become members under the
provisions of this section in the same manner as if they were State em-
ployees and shall compute the contributions which would be pavable
annually by the employer on behalf of such members as though thev
were State employees except that each employer of members participat-
ing in the system as provided in this section, shall make a special accrued
liability contribution on account of the participation of its officers and
employees in the retirement system, which shall be determined by an
actuarial valuation of the accrued liability on account of the officers and
employees of such employer who elected to become members, in the same
manner as the accrued liability rate was originally determined for State
employees. This special accrued liability contribution, subject to such
adjustment as may be necessary on account of any additional prior
service credits awarded to officers or employees of such employer, shall
be payable in lieu of the accrued liability contribution payable on account
of other employees in the system. The expense of making such initial
valuation shall be assessed against and paid by the employer on whose
account it is necessary. The contributions so computed together with
a pro rata share of the cost of the administration of the retirement svstem.
based upon the payroll of the employees, shall be certified by the Board
to the chief fiscal officer of the employer. The amounts so certified shall
be a charge against the employer. The chief fiscal officer of each such
employer shall pay to the State Treasurer the amount certified by the
Board as payable under the provisions of this section, and the State
Treasurer shall credit such amounts to the appropriate tunds of the
retirement system.

(7) Employees who become members under this section and on
behalf of whom contributions are paid as provided in this section shall
be entitled to benefits under the retirement system as though they were
State employees.

(8) The agreement of any employer to contribute on account of its
employees shall be irrevocable, but should an employer for any reason
become financially unable to make the normal and accrued liability con-
tributions payable on account of its employees, then such employer shall
be deemed to be in default. All members ot the retirement svstem) who
were employees of such employer at the time of default shall thereupon
be entitled to discontinue membership in the retirement system and to a
refund of their previous contributions upon demand made within ninety
days thereafter. As of a date ninety days following the date of such
default, the actuary of the retirement system shall determine by actuarial
valuation the amount of the reserves held on account of each remaining
active member and pensioner of such employer and shall credit to each
such member and pensioner the amount of reserve so held. The reserve
so credited together with the amount of the accumulated contributions
of each such active member, shall be used to provide for him a paid
up deferred annuity beginning at age sixty-five, and the reserve of each
pensioner shall be used in providing such part of his existing pension as
the reserve so held will provide, which pension, together with his an-
nuity, shall thereafter be payable to him. The rights and privileges ot
both active members and pensioners of such emplover shall thereupon
terminate, except as to the payment of the deferred annuities so pro-
vided and the annuities and the pensions, or parts thereof, provided for
the pensioners.

(9) Notwithstanding anything to the contrary, the retirement svs-
tem shall not be liable for the payment of any pensions or other benefits
on account of the employees or pensioners of any employer under this
section, for which reserves have not been previously created from funds
contributed by such employer or its employees for such benefits.