At the September 9 Police and Fire Retirement System (PFRS) board meeting, as a matter of routine business, the Board considered the creditable compensation of three Atlantic City police officers. The three officers, with various ranks, honorably retired from the City after 25 plus years of service. Since they were all Tier 1 employees their retirement is based on their last 12 months of salary. However, all three officers’ salary was reduced as part of the State supervision of Atlantic City. The officer’s claim that they were at a disadvantage to their counterparts and should have their retirement based on the highest year of salary, which was the intent of the law, instead of their last 12 month salary. By a 10-2 vote, the board permitted the Division of Pensions and Benefits to use the 12 months prior to the state supervision, which was their highest salary year, to calculate the creditable compensation. The officers will be required to make the employee contributions on the salary from the date of state supervision to the time of retirement.
The Board also approved a Memorandum of Understanding with Division of Investments for ethic compliance for PFRS staff. Since the PFRS staff will be working in the same area as the Division of Investments PFRS staff will need pre-approval to trade securities. The Board also accepted the proposed rules for P.L. 2019, c. 157, which permits certain members or retirees of PFRS, SPRS, or PERS to receive accidental disability retirement allowance for disability resulting from participation in 9/11 World Trade Center rescue, recovery, or cleanup operations.
Trustee Megariotis advised the Board of the newly released employer contributions rate of 29.8% for 2020. Trustee Polkowitz suggested that the retirement application be updated to require the applicant to certify that they are currently not under criminal or departmental investigation.
The next meeting is scheduled for October 7, 2019.
Contact: Lori Buckelew, Senior Legislative Analyst, lbuckelew@njlm.org, 609-695-3481 x112.