§ 203-7-C. Purchase of Unpaid Authorized Leave of Absence Service Credit.

(a)

An Active Member of the Retirement System shall be permitted to obtain up to one (1) year Creditable Service under this Retirement System if the Member satisfies all of the requirements of subsection (b) below. The purposes for which the service credit shall be used under this Retirement System are described in subsection (c) below.

(b)

A Member meets the requirements of this subsection if all of the following requirements are met:

(i)

The Member has had at least 160 hours of continuous, non-contributing unpaid authorized leave of absence from full-time City service for any reason except for leaves due to corrective action from the disciplinary process.

(ii)

The Member is an Employee, as defined in Section 203-1-E of this Chapter, on or after October 28, 2009.

(iii)

The Member shall have returned to work as an employee and maintained employment for at least 18 consecutive months at the time that the Member applies to purchase the service.

(iv)

The purchase of the service complies with Section 203-6.

(c)

In order to become entitled to additional Creditable Service under this section, the Member shall deposit in this system an amount equal to 100 percent of the amount determined by the actuary chosen by the Retirement System, to be necessary to fund the additional Service Retirement Allowance and all other benefits that shall be payable under the Retirement System on account of the Member's purchase of Creditable Service under this Section. Payment by the Member may be made in any combination of the following methods:

(i)

[Repealed.]

(ii)

Payroll deduction by the Member pursuant to a pick-up plan that meets the requirements of IRC Section 414(h)(2).

(iii)

A trustee-to-trustee transfer from a 403(b) plan or an eligible governmental deferred compensation 457(b) plan.

(iv)

The Member making a rollover contribution (including a direct rollover) to the Retirement System from an "Eligible Retirement Plan," as defined in Section 203-117.

(v)

Any other direct payment in cash to the Retirement System.

Any Employee desiring to exercise the option to purchase Creditable Service under this Section shall make application to the Board, which application shall be accompanied by a non-refundable $250 application fee for the cost of the actuarial study required to determine the cost. If the Employee purchases Creditable Service, the $250 fee shall be applied toward the cost of such purchase.

At the time of application, a Member shall provide a letter from his or her employing agency stating all of the following: (i) the Member was on an unpaid authorized leave of absence unrelated to corrective action from the disciplinary process; (ii) the inclusive dates of the unpaid authorized leave of absence; and (iii) the Employee's rate of pay and monthly gross income at the time of the unpaid authorized leave of absence in a form and manner acceptable to the Board.

For this purpose, a rollover contribution shall be a contribution to this Retirement System that, in accordance with IRC Sections 402(c), 403(a)(4), 403(b)(8), 408(d)(3) or 457(e)(16) and procedures established by the Board, a Member makes by delivering, or causing to be delivered to the Retirement System, assets in cash which constitute such rollover contribution.

(d)

The maximum amount of Creditable Service an Employee may purchase due to an unpaid authorized leave of absence is one (1) year, and the minimum amount of Creditable Service an Employee may purchase is 160 work hours. An Employee may purchase all or part of the Creditable Service for which the Employee is eligible provided the Employee purchases at least 160 work hours of Creditable Service.

(e)

The minimum number of years of service required under the provisions of Section 203-42, 203-43 and Section 203-44 for health care benefits cannot be supplied by the purchase of credit under the provisions of this Section; however, credit purchased under the provisions of this Section will be applied to years of City service in excess of the minimum number of 20 years of service in order to determine the percentage of premiums to be paid by the Retirement System on behalf of a Retiree.

(f)

At the time a Member purchases unpaid authorized leave of absence service credit, the Member shall certify to the Board, on a form furnished by the Board, that the unpaid authorized leave of absence service will not be used in the calculation of any retirement benefit currently being paid or payable in the future to the Member under any other retirement program except social security. In accordance with Section 203-133, the Board shall otherwise have full authority to administer the terms of this Section. All decisions of the Board made in regard to the administration of this Section shall be final, including without limitation (i) determinations of the Board in regard to the question of whether or not information supplied by a Member provides proper verification of "Unpaid Authorized Leave of Absence Service," and (ii) determinations of whether a leave of absence constitutes "Unpaid Authorized Leave of Absence Service."

(Ordained by Emer. Ord. 290-2009, § 2, eff. Oct. 28, 2009; a. Ord. No. 336-2016, § 1, eff. Nov. 26, 2016; a. Emer. Ord. No. 343-2018, § 1, eff. Oct. 31, 2018)