Title 38, Public Officers and Employees

A. Each employee of a participating employer is a member of the plan unless the employee is receiving a pension from the plan. A person employed shall undergo a medical examination performed by a designated physician or a physician working in a clinic that is appointed by the loc…

A. A member who received a severance refund on termination of employment as provided in section 38-884, who is subsequently reemployed by an employer and who may have redeposited the amount withdrawn with interest as provided in section 38-884 or a member who redeems prior servic…

A. A member may retire if the member: 1. Files a written application for normal retirement with the plan in the form prescribed by the plan. 2. Ceases to be an employee before the date of retirement. 3. Meets one of the age and service requirements for normal retirement prescribe…

A. A reverse deferred retirement option plan is established. The purpose of the reverse deferred retirement option plan is to add flexibility to the plan and to provide members who elect to participate in the reverse deferred retirement option plan access to a lump sum benefit in…

Members who are hired on or after July 1, 2018 and who have earned at least ten years of credited service may retire at fifty-two and one-half years of age and will receive an actuarially equivalent retirement benefit to the benefit amount prescribed in section 38-885, subsection…

A. A member may retire and receive an accidental disability pension or a total and permanent disability pension if the local board finds that all of the following conditions occur: 1. An application for disability retirement is filed with the retirement plan or the local board by…

A. A member may retire and receive an ordinary disability pension if the local board finds that all of the following conditions occur: 1. An application for disability retirement is filed with the retirement plan or the local board by either the member or the member's participati…

The surviving spouse of a deceased retired member is entitled to receive a surviving spouse's pension if the spouse was married to the member for a period of at least two consecutive years at the time of the member's death. Payment of a surviving spouse's pension commences as of …

A. The surviving spouse of a deceased member is entitled to receive a surviving spouse's pension if the spouse was married to the member on the date of the member's death. Payment of a surviving spouse's pension commences as of the last day of the month following the member's dat…

If all pension payments permanently terminate before an aggregate amount equal to the retired member's or deceased member's accumulated member contributions has been paid, the difference between the amount of accumulated member contributions and the aggregate amount of pension pa…

A. A normal retirement pension, an accidental disability pension, a total and permanent disability pension or an ordinary disability pension commences on the first day of the calendar month next following the member's date of retirement. A survivor pension commences on the first …

A. As determined by actuarial valuations reported to the employers and the local boards by the board, each employer shall make contributions sufficient under the actuarial valuations to meet both the normal cost for members hired before July 1, 2018 plus the actuarially determine…

A. An employer shall pay contributions at an alternate contribution rate on behalf of a retired member who returns to work in any capacity in a position ordinarily filled by an employee of the employer in a designated position. This section applies to a retired member who has bee…

Each participating employer shall pick up the contributions required of members on account of compensation paid after the effective date specified in the resolution of the board activating the provisions of this section. The picked up contributions shall be treated as participati…

A. To the extent outlined in this section, the administration of the plan and the responsibility for making the provisions of the plan effective for each employer are vested in a local board. The state department of corrections, the department of juvenile corrections, the departm…

A. A local board may enter into an intergovernmental agreement with other local boards to consolidate the boards for the respective employers. B. The consolidated local board shall work with the board of trustees to ensure that the new board is duly empaneled consistent with the …

A. The financial objective of the retirement plan is to receive contributions each fiscal year which are sufficient to both: 1. Fund the actuarial cost of benefits likely to be paid on account of credited service earned by members during the fiscal year. 2. Fund the unfunded actu…

A. The maximum annual pension for a limitation year shall not exceed the following: 1. For limitation years beginning before 1995, the lesser of ninety thousand dollars, as indexed for inflation, or one hundred per cent of the member's average monthly salary. 2. For limitation ye…

A. The annual compensation of each member taken into account for purposes of the plan shall not exceed the following: 1. Beginning January 1, 1996 through December 31, 2001, $150,000. 2. Except for members hired on or after July 1, 2018, beginning January 1, 2002, $200,000. The b…

The board shall not make a retroactive payment of a pension to a person for a period of more than one hundred eighty days before the date of the person's application for benefits.

All distributions required under this article shall be determined and made pursuant to section 401(a)(9) of the internal revenue code and the regulations that are issued under that section by the United States secretary of the treasury.

The participating employer contributions and the assets of the fund are exempt from state, county and municipal taxes. Member contributions made to the fund after December 31, 1974 and subsequently withdrawn from the fund as other than a pension and benefits and pensions received…

A. The right of an individual to a pension, to a refund of accumulated member contributions, to the pension itself or to any other right accrued or accruing to any individual, and the monies and assets of the retirement plan, are not subject to execution, garnishment, attachment,…

A. If an individual becomes entitled to a pension or other benefit payable by the retirement plan as a result of an accident or injury caused by the act of a third party, the fund is subrogated to the rights of the individual against the third party to the extent of fund financed…

The retirement plan shall correct errors in the records of the retirement plan. The retirement plan shall seek to recover overpayments and shall make up underpayments. Recovery of overpayments may be accomplished by reducing the amount of future payments so that the actuarial pre…

The legislature intends that the retirement plan is a qualified pension plan under section 401 of the internal revenue code, as amended, or successor provisions of law, and that the trust is exempt from taxation under section 501 of the internal revenue code, as amended. The asse…

A. Because the plan as enacted at a particular time is a unique amalgam of rights and obligations having a critical impact on the actuarial integrity of the plan, the legislature intends that the plan as enacted at a particular time be construed and applied as a coherent whole an…

A. If more than the correct amount of employer or member contributions is paid into the plan by an employer through a mistake of fact, the board shall return those contributions to the employer if the employer requests return of the contributions within one year after the date of…

A. A member who changes employment or transfers or is assigned to a position in which the member is no longer eligible to be a member of this plan, because of a change in duties or otherwise, with the same or another employer of this state or a municipality of this state particip…

A. County detention officers and nonuniformed employees of a sheriff's department whose primary duties require direct contact with inmates may participate in this plan if the board of supervisors of the county enters into a joinder agreement with the board of trustees to bring su…

The right to modify, amend or repeal this article or any provision thereof is reserved to the legislature.

A. If an active or inactive member dies and no pension is payable on account of the member's death, an amount equal to two times the member's accumulated contributions to the retirement plan is payable to the person designated by the deceased member in writing and filed with the …

A. For members hired on or before June 30, 2018, each retired member or survivor of a retired member is eligible to receive a compounding cost-of-living adjustment in the base benefit as provided in this section. The first payment under this section shall be made immediately foll…

A. For members who are hired on or after July 1, 2018, each eligible retired member or survivor of a retired member may receive a compounding cost-of-living adjustment in the base benefit as provided in this section. B. A retired member or survivor of a retired member is eligible…

A. On notification, the board shall pay from the assets of the separate account established pursuant to subsection G of this section part of the single coverage premium of any group health and accident insurance for each retired member or survivor of the plan who receives a pensi…

A. Except as provided in subsection B of this section, a member of the plan who has at least five years of credited service with the plan may receive credited service for periods of active military service performed before employment with the member's current employer if: 1. The …

A. A member who terminates employment with an employer and accepts a position with the same or another employer participating in the plan shall have the member's credited service transferred to the member's record with the new employer provided the member leaves the member's accu…

A. Except as provided in subsection B of this section, an active member of the plan who has at least five years of credited service with the plan who had previous service in this state as an employee with an employer now covered by the plan or who had previous service with an age…

A member who purchases service pursuant to this article or section 38-922 or 38-924 shall make payments directly to the plan in whole or in part by any one or a combination of the following methods: 1. In lump sum payments. 2. Through an arrangement with the plan that the payment…

A. Notwithstanding any other law, in a judicial proceeding for annulment, dissolution of marriage or legal separation that provides for the distribution of community property, or in any judicial proceeding to amend or enforce such a property distribution, a court in this state ma…

A. If any member who has at least ten years of credited service terminates employment for reasons other than retirement or disability, the person may elect to receive a deferred annuity, except that if the person withdraws the person's accumulated contributions from the plan, all…

A. A person who defrauds the plan or who takes, converts, steals or embezzles monies owned by or from the plan and who fails or refuses to return the monies to the plan on the board's written request is subject to civil suit by the plan in the superior court in Maricopa county. O…

A. Beginning July 1, 2017, the discount rate specified in subsection B of this section applies to service purchases or transfers of service credits to the plan pursuant to the following sections: 1. Section 38-907, subsection A or B. 2. Section 38-909, subsection C. 3. Sections 3…

An employer shall disclose the employer's funding ratio under the plan on the employer's public website.

A. An active or inactive member of a state retirement system or plan, including the retirement system provided for in article 2 of this chapter, the elected officials' retirement plan provided for in article 3 of this chapter, the public safety personnel retirement system provide…

A. Service credits qualified in accordance with section 38-730 or 38-921 may be transferred or redeemed in accordance with this section. B. In the case of a member whose contributions remain on deposit with the prior retirement system or plan, the following shall be calculated: 1…