Relates to allowing certain members of the New York city police pension fund to receive service credit for their service in the New York city police department cadet program.
NEW YORK STATE ASSEMBLY MEMORANDUM IN SUPPORT OF LEGISLATION submitted in accordance with Assembly Rule III, Sec 1(f)
BILL NUMBER: A6502A
SPONSOR: Abbate TITLE OF BILL: An act to amend the administrative code of the city of
New York, in relation to allowing certain members of the New York city
police pension fund to receive service credit for their service in the
New York city police department cadet program
PURPOSE:
Allows certain members of the New York City police pension fund to
receive service credit for their service in the New York City police
department cadet program.
SUMMARY OF SPECIFIC PROVISIONS:
This bill makes an amendment to the NYC Administrative Code to allow
certain police officers to receive Police Pension Fund service credit
for their service in the NYPD Cadet Program, and to allow them to tier-
reinstate based on such credits, when applicable ("Cadet Buyback Bill")
Amendments to: NYC Administrative Code section 13-218
JUSTIFICATION:
The NYPD Cadet Corps is a program for qualified college students in
which they earn full-time summer and part-time school year employment as
civilian employees in the NYPD. Although cadets are eligible to join the
New York City Employee Retirement System (NYCERS), those who served
prior to 2012 were wrongfully denied the opportunity to join NYCERS when
they served in the Cadet Corps. As a result, these cadets not only lost
out on the opportunity to receive pension credits, but those who went on
to become police officers after July 1, 2009, were denied the opportu-
nity to become Tier 2 members of the pension system, and instead were
placed in either Tier 3 or Tier 3R of the pension system, both of which
provide for significantly reduced benefits.
The proposed amendments seek to:
1) Allow Tier 3 and 3R members with prior service as Police Cadets to
purchase or roll over the time that they served as Police Cadets.
2) Where applicable, allow former Police Cadets to tier reinstate.
3) Allow Tier 3 and 3R members with prior service as Police Cadets to
purchase or roll over the time that they served as Cadets and such time
deemed as "good time" toward retirement.
As the result of then Governor David Paterson's veto of the "Tier 2
extender," more than 11,000 New York City police officers hired after
July 1, 2009 have been placed in the Tier 3 or Tier 3R pension plans.
Newly-hired police officers who served as cadets prior to that date
should have been able to transfer or buyback their cadet service time in
order join the Police Pension Fund ("PPF") as Tier 2 members.
Unfortunately, because they were denied membership in the pension system
until the time they became police officers, they were forced to join the
PPF as members of Tier 3 (or 3R). The first part of this bill seeks to
allow this group of police officers to tier reinstate, i.e., to become
members of the pension system as of the date they first served as
cadets, a policy that is in place today.
Even after Police Cadets were permitted to join NYCERS (which was some
time in 2012), they were wrongfully advised that their time as a cadet
in NYCERS, would effectively not count in the PPF, discouraging cadets
from joining NYCERS. According to the City, credits earned while a
police officer was a member of NYCERS are not counted as "good time"
toward eligibility for a police service retirement, making credits accu-
mulated in NYCERS virtually meaningless because Tier 3 does not place a
value on time beyond the time required to receive a police service
retirement. The second and third part of the bill seek to allow police
officers to buy back prior cadet time and to have that time count as
"good time."
This bill would correct the past inequities caused by the wrongful deci-
sion to exclude Police Cadets from the NYCERS pension system, make whole
those who relied on the incorrect legal conclusions rendered by the City
and its Law Department and clarify this area for all future Police
Cadets.
LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:
New Bill.
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:
See Fiscal Note.
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This bill shall take effect immediately.
