Title
An Ordinance to Amend Sections 1:552.1(2) and 1:564(2) of Chapter 18, Employees Retirement System, of Title I of Code of the City of Ann Arbor (Ordinance No. ORD-12-09)
Memorandum
The proposed amendments to Chapter 18 accomplish two technical changes to the City’s retirement ordinance.
First, the amendment documents the process used to establish the interest rate used for crediting participant contribution accounts under the Retirement System. Historically the Retirement Board has had a uniform practice of using for each year the average annual rate of return on overall Retirement System assets for the preceding ten years. Benefits counsel in consultation with the City Attorney’s Office and the City’s CFO have recommended that this Retirement Board practice for arriving at the rate should be described explicitly in the ordinance. Codifying this practice will provide consistency and evidence of compliance with the tax laws governing qualified plans.
Second, the amendment corrects a language error that was included in the ordinance revision adopted effective February 1, 2011. That revision misstated the methodology for calculating a participant’s early retirement benefit. The present amendment effectively restores the previous language (prior to the Feb. 1, 2011 revision). The proposed corrective amendment has no impact on plan operation, under which early retirement benefits have continued to be calculated in a bifurcated way as provided for under the pre-February 1, 2011, ordinance despite the incorrect introduction of the language providing for a uniform reduction.
Staff
Prepared by: Nancy Niemela, Senior Assistant City Attorney and Mary Joan Fales, Senior Assistant City Attorney
Reviewed by: Tom Crawford, CFO/Finance and Administrative Services Administrator, Robyn Wilkerson, Director of Human Resources and Labor Relations
Approved by: Steven D. Powers, City Administrator
Body
ORDINANCE NO. ORD-12-09
First Reading: April 2, 2012 Pub...
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