Subdivision 1. Establishment. The public employees defined contribution plan is administered by the Public Employees Retirement Association under supervision of the association board of trustees.
Subd. 2. Eligibility. (a) Eligibility to participate in the defined contribution plan is available to:
(1) elected local government officials of a governmental subdivision who elect to participate in the plan under section 353D.02, subdivision 1, and who, for the elected service rendered to a governmental subdivision, are not members of the Public Employees Retirement Association within the meaning of section 353.01, subdivision 7;
(2) physicians who, if they did not elect to participate in the plan under section 353D.02, subdivision 2, would meet the definition of member under section 353.01, subdivision 7;
(3) basic and advanced life-support emergency medical service personnel who are employed by any public ambulance service that elects to participate under section 353D.02, subdivision 3;
(4) members of a municipal rescue squad associated with the city of Litchfield in Meeker County, or of a county rescue squad associated with Kandiyohi County, if an independent nonprofit rescue squad corporation, incorporated under chapter 317A, performing emergency management services, and if not affiliated with a fire department or ambulance service and if its members are not eligible for membership in that fire department's or ambulance service's relief association or comparable pension plan;
(5) employees of the Port Authority of the city of St. Paul who elect to participate in the plan under section 353D.02, subdivision 5, and who are not members of the Public Employees Retirement Association under section 353.01, subdivision 7;
(6) city managers who elected to be excluded from the general employees retirement plan of the Public Employees Retirement Association under section 353.028 and who elected to participate in the public employees defined contribution plan under section 353.028, subdivision 3, paragraph (b);
(7) volunteer or emergency on-call firefighters serving in a municipal fire department or an independent nonprofit firefighting corporation who are not covered by the public employees police and fire retirement plan and who are not covered by a volunteer firefighters relief association and who elect to participate in the public employees defined contribution plan;
(8) elected county sheriffs who are former members of the police and fire plan and who are receiving a retirement annuity as provided under section 353.651; and
(9) persons who are excluded from membership under section 353.01, subdivision 2b, paragraph (a), clause (23).
(b) For purposes of this chapter, an elected local government official includes a person appointed to fill a vacancy in an elective office. Service as an elected local government official only includes service for the governmental subdivision for which the official was elected by the public at large. Service as an elected local government official ceases and eligibility to participate terminates when the person ceases to be an elected official. An elected local government official does not include an elected county sheriff who must be a member of the police and fire plan as provided under chapter 353.
(c) Individuals otherwise eligible to participate in the plan under this subdivision who are currently covered by a public or private pension plan because of their employment or provision of services are not eligible to participate in the public employees defined contribution plan.
(d) A former participant is a person who has terminated eligible employment or service and has not withdrawn the value of the person's individual account.
History:1987 c 372 art 5 s 1; 1990 c 570 art 8 s 2; 1991 c 291 art 19 s 2,11; 1991 c 341 s 35; 1992 c 432 art 2 s 36; 1996 c 438 art 6 s 1; 1999 c 222 art 21 s 1; 1Sp2003 c 12 art 4 s 4; 2006 c 271 art 3 s 30; 2007 c 133 art 2 s 12; 2010 c 359 art 5 s 13