GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — In a letter to Grand Rapids city manager Greg Sundstrom, the city attorney’s office presented a proposal to amend the city’s police and fire retirement system ordinance.
Tuesday morning, City commissioners voted to pass the amendment.
Here is the proposal verbatim:
“In order to bring the City’s Police Fire Retirement System Ordinance up to date,
the attached resolution proposes several amendments to Chapter 7 of the City Code, in
order to accomplish the following:
1. Update the list of Federal Regulations with which the Retirement System must comply, reflecting updated IRS Regulations.
2. Amend the definition of “compensation” to comply with updated IRS Regulations, and also reflects the transition to the use of actual overtime wages
by 2015 in the calculation of firefighter retirement benefits.
3. Amend the definition of final average salary to include payment for up to six (6) days of unused vacation leave for Firefighter members.
4. Amend the definition of “minimum service retirement age” to include “normal retirement age”, consistent with the updated IRS Code.
5. Amend the credited service limit to reflect a lower pension multiplier for newly-hired employees.
6. Allow Firefighter members to purchase a total of up to four (4) years of credited
service, to be used solely for computing the member’s life allowance.
7. Allow Firefighter members to use up to 2,080 accrued sick leave hours to purchase up to one (1) year of additional credited service, instead of 2,620
hours.
8. Amend the ordinance to reflect a lower pension multiplier for newly-hired employees, and allows for newly-hired employees with a lower pension multiplier to elect to pay an increased member contribution rate to purchase a
higher multiplier for service after the first five (5) years of service.
9. Increase member contribution rates for Firefighter members.
10. Correct an error in the contribution rate for Police Officers & Sergeants.
11. Adjust contribution rates for non-represented members of the Police and Fire
Retirement System.
12. Require the employer to contribute at a rate of not less than 3.0%.
13. Update Section 415 Limits to reflect current IRS requirements”
