CCCERA’s Retirement Board held a Special Board Meeting on October 30, 2012, to discuss implementation of AB 197, the amendments to Government Code Section 31461 of the County Employees Retirement Law of 1937. A slide presentation explained the legislative changes to “Compensation Earnable,” “Vacation Pay at Termination,” and “Sick Leave Cash Out at Termination.” 
After public comment and Trustee discussion, the Retirement Board voted to direct staff to implement changes mandated by the new law as of January 1, 2013, the effective date of the legislation. 

A Legal Opinion concerning implementation from CCCERA’s Fiduciary Counsel, Harvey Leiderman, was released as a public document.

This means: effective January 1, 2013, “terminal pay” will be included in the calculation of Final Average Salary for retirement benefit purposes, but only to the extent it was earned and payable during the Final Average Salary (FAS) year. Amounts exceeding the total that could be “earned and payable” during the FAS period will not be included, whether paid during service or at termination. If you wish to retire and have your unused accruals of vacation, personal holiday, sabbatical and/or holiday compensatory time off (permitted accrual amounts that are part of collectively bargained MOUs for each employee group) included in your Final Average Salary calculation, you must submit your application to retire by December 31, 2012. You may not be in pay status any later than December 30, 2012. NOTE: Sick leave accruals become part of service credit; these accruals will continue to be added to your retirement benefit calculation.

The only group that may have some terminal pay are those members who can currently cash vacation accruals during the year.