ADOPTED-JANUARY 27, 1998

Agenda Item No. 34

SUBSTITUTE

Introduced by the Administrative Services/Personnel and Finance Committee of the:

INGHAM COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS

RESOLUTION CHANGING RETIREMENT BENEFITS FOR JUDGES

RESOLUTION #98-12

WHEREAS, County Boards of Commissioners are responsible for establishing certain levels of compensation for Circuit, Probate, and certain District Court Judges; and

WHEREAS, the net annual salary cost to the County, because of judicial standardization payments and other recently enacted legislation, has been reduced to $450, leaving only county costs associated with health, dental; vision, and disability insurances and the provision of retirement benefits based on that portion of the Judges salary historically deemed county share; and

WHEREAS, that portion of a judges salary upon which the county retirement payments have been based has been further reduced by judges voluntarily having a portion counted toward the state judicial retirement program, which includes a 7% employee contribution; and

WHEREAS, the county retirement benefit for judges is outdated and no longer comparable to what is provided other county employees; and

WHEREAS, with the recent reduction of the county net salary cost for judicial salaries, it is possible to improve the county retirement benefit for judges without additional county cost;

WHEREAS, adequate documentation has been provided to the County Controller substantiating the $450 net county cost for judges salaries.

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that effective January 1, 1998, the retirement benefit for Judges, based on the county share of salary as defined by statute, shall be MERS B-3, 6 year vesting, f-55-15 years, $-0- employee contribution.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that in the event that a judge's ability to have a portion of the local county supplement (currently $17,577 Circuit; $18,290 District & Probate) counted toward the state retirement benefit is eliminated, thus increasing the amount counted toward the county retirement benefit by that amount, then a judge shall contribute 5% of the local county share (currently $43,943 for Circuit; $45,724 for District and Probate) as employee contribution for the county retirement benefit, subject to MERS rules and regulations.

RESOLUTION #98-12

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that beginning January 1, 1998, pursuant to Act 165 PA 1985, as amended, a Probate Judge who was not eligible for a county retirement benefit, but was given a state judicial retirement plan funded in part by an employee contribution, up to $980 of which was reimbursed by the county, shall be reimbursed the amount that the county would have paid to its retirement system ($3,413, based on a county salary base of $27,434 and a 12.44% cost), had the judge participated in the county retirement benefit in the same manner as a Probate or District Judge, as determined from data supplied in the annual valuation of the Ingham County MERS plan.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the Ingham County Board of Commissioners hereby allows that the Probate Judge's member contribution to the retirement system shall continue to be deducted from the member's compensation and treated as employer contributions in determining tax treatment under the Internal Revenue Code, as provided by the Probate Judge's Retirement Act, as amended, effective January 1, 1983.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that Resolution #97-271 authorized at the December 9, 1997 meeting is repealed and replaced by this resolution.

ADMINISTRATIVE SERVICES/PERSONNEL: Yeas: Pratt, Goulet, McDonald, Hunting, Juall

Nays: None Absent: None Approved 11/18/97

FINANCE: Yeas: Keefe, McDonald, Grebner, Czarnecki, Bernero, Schafer

Nays: None Absent: Goulet Approved 1/21/98