Police Pension Fund Participants’ Retirement Options

Normal Retirement Options

Service Requirement for Normal Retirement:

• Any member of the department may retire after twenty (20) years of continuous active service.
• You will be paid a pension in the amount equal to seventy percent (70%) of your average monthly pensionable income for the last three (3) years of service or five (5) best of the last ten (10) years, whichever is higher.

More than 10 years less than 20 years of service

• If you are discharged or voluntarily separate from the Department, you may make an irrevocable election to remain vested to receive a monthly pension benefit beginning at age forty-seven (47). This election must be delivered, in writing, to the Police Chief within thirty (30) days after separation or discharge.
• If you are over 47 and elected within the 30 days to receive a monthly pension, the pension shall begin at the date of separation. Your pension amount will be determined by computing your average monthly pensionable income for the last three (3) years of service or five (5) best of the last ten (10) years, whichever is higher.
• You shall receive, each month, two percent (2%) of the average pensionable income for each year of service up to but not including twenty (20) years.

More than 20 years of service

• Any member of the Department who retires with more than twenty (20) years of continuous active service shall receive in addition to the basic seventy percent (70%) pension, two percent (2%) for each year over twenty (20) years, or up to five (5) additional years of service, for a maximum of eighty percent (80%).

Refund of Pension Contributions

• If you are discharged or voluntarily separate from the Department, and not eligible to retire or to elect to remain vested (or eligible to elect to remain vested, but choose not to do so). You are entitled to a refund of all of the contributions deducted from your pay. No interest is paid on contributions that are refunded.
• Members leaving the Department with more than ten (10) years of credited service who choose not to vest (or retire, if eligible) are likewise entitled to a refund of their own contributions without interest.

Cost of Living

Any member of the Department who retires with twenty (20) or more years of credited service, or who retires on a line-of-duty disability, receives an annual cost-of-living (C.O.L.A.) increase of two percent (2%) per year beginning at age fifty-five (55).

Note:

• If you elect a refund of accumulated contributions after termination of employment, you will forfeit your right to any pension from this DB plan.
• If a member with more than ten (10) but less than twenty (20) years of credited service leaves the department and elects to vest and receive a pension beginning at age forty-seven (47), said member would not be entitled to receive either the C.O.L.A. benefit or a return of the member’s C.O.L.A. contributions.
• This is a basic summary of the Defined Benefit Retirement options. Refer to Chapter 12: Defined Benefit Plan Document, part of the City Code, for Cost of Living (COLA) provisions and Disability provisions.