AB 1601: County employees’ retirement: cost-of-living adjustments.

31874.7.

(a) Notwithstanding any other provision of law, on an annual basis, the county board of supervisors may authorize a cost-of-living adjustment to the retirement allowances, optional death allowances, or annual death allowances payable by the retirement system. The action by the board of supervisors may specify a date as of which the adjustment shall be effective and, if no effective date is specified, the adjustment shall be made in allowances payable for the time commencing on the first day of the month following the action by the county board of supervisors.

(b) Prior to the authorization of a cost-of-living adjustment under this section, the county board of supervisors shall collaborate with the retirement board to identify the eligible retired members, survivors, beneficiaries, or successors in interest designated, or a subset of those benefit recipients, to receive the cost-of-living adjustment, the amount of the cost-of-living adjustment, and the funding source. A statement of the actuarial impact upon future annual costs, prepared by an enrolled actuary, shall be provided and reported in accordance with Sections 31515.5 and 31516.

(c) The county board of supervisors may authorize a cost-of-living adjustment under any section in this article and Article 16.6 (commencing with Section 31875) of Chapter 3 of Part 3 of Division 4 of Title 3 or may specify the adjustment provided by this section shall be payable only to those eligible retired members, survivors, beneficiaries, or successors in interest whose accumulated loss of purchasing power equals or exceeds an amount specified by the board of supervisors as of January 1 of the year the board of supervisors takes action pursuant to this section. Loss of purchasing power shall be determined by the board of supervisors based on the difference between the following:

(1) The initial retirement allowance, optional death allowance, or annual death allowance as it would have been increased by the cumulative total effect of the annual changes, rounded to the nearest one-half of 1 percent, in the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers for the area in which the county seat is situated.

(2) The retirement allowance, optional death allowance, or annual death allowance as actually increased by cost-of-living adjustments previously granted with respect to the allowance, if any.

(d) A cost-of-living adjustment granted pursuant to this section shall become part of the retirement allowance, optional death allowance, or annual death allowance to be increased by any subsequent cost-of-living adjustments. The granting of an increase pursuant to this section in any particular year does not create any continuing entitlement to additional increases in subsequent years and does not create any claim by a retired member, survivor, beneficiary, or successor in interest against the county, district, or retirement fund for any increase in any allowance paid or payable prior to the effective date of the action by the county board of supervisors pursuant to this section.

(e) This section shall only apply to a county of the 19th class, as defined by Sections 28020 and 28040, as amended by Chapter 1204 of the Statutes of 1971.