Retirement rules set payment and collection duties for local departments

An employee who chooses not to join the applicable retirement system must file a voluntary-election affidavit before the choice is valid. The rule covers employees who elect not to become members of the applicable firefighters' or municipal police employees' retirement system. The affidavit must state that the choice is voluntary and made freely. For an employee covered by R.S. 11:2213, the chief of police or mayor must sign and notarize the affidavit. The affidavit must be filed before the election not to join becomes valid.

The retirement system may recover overdue municipal contributions by having the state treasurer deduct available municipal funds or by suing the liable municipality. The collection rules apply to delinquent payments owed under the listed municipal police retirement-system contribution provisions. Before a state-treasurer deduction, the system director must certify the delinquency and give written notice to the municipality. The treasurer must send deducted money to the retirement system and notify the municipality. A court action includes interest at the legal rate from the date the payment became overdue. The deduction or court action may be used after the required employer contribution becomes delinquent.

An employer that fully dissolves its fire department must pay the retirement system the portion of unfunded pension liability assigned to that employer. The payment is based on the liability existing on June 30 immediately before the dissolution and the allocation percentage in the prior fiscal year's employer pension report. The system's actuary may adjust the allocation percentage using additional information. The payment includes interest at the system's valuation rate. Payments begin on the first July 1 after the fire department dissolves.

An employer with a partial fire-department dissolution must make payments tied to the department's reduction in participating employees. The provisions cover employers whose participating-employee counts fall under the partial-dissolution standards stated in the text and remain subject to related payments. The amount is determined by the system's actuary and is paid over fifteen years with interest at the system's valuation rate. The text includes employee-count thresholds for identifying a partial dissolution, but the supplied formatting makes some exact thresholds unclear. Payments may stop if employee participation returns to the specified comparison level, and earlier payments may offset certain later amounts. The system's actuary reviews participating-employee counts each fiscal year and may proportionately adjust remaining payments without exceeding the initial amount. For withdrawals occurring on or after July 1, 2021, payment start dates depend on when the actuary makes the determination; the text states different schedules for determinations before June 30, 2024, and on or after that date.