Confidentiality of Member Records
This rulemaking conforms the agency's administrative rules to the circuit court judgments entered in PERS v. Oregonian Publishing Company LLC and PERS v. Multimedia Holdings Corporation, dba Statesman Journal and Statesman Journal Media. The judgments are a result of the settlement of the litigation between the agency and the newspapers that began last year after the Oregon attorney general issued Public Records Orders (PROs) directing PERS to disclose data about individually identified PERS benefit recipients.
The amendments to OAR 459-060-0020 incorporate the judgments into the administrative rule by specific reference. The resulting OAR makes clear that, notwithstanding any other confidentiality provision in rule or statute, the agency will disclose member information as set forth in the judgments.
Disability Eligibility Rules
In 2005, PERS adopted changes to its administrative rules governing the disability retirement program for Tier One/ Tier Two members and adopted new rules for the administration of OPSRP disability benefits. PERS' internal auditors, in Report #2011-03 dated October 12, 2010, reviewed the agency's periodic review and contested case process for the Tier One/Tier Two disability program and recommended further clarifications to the administrative rules. These modifications are in response to that audit finding. Staff also modified the OPSRP disability rules to align the them, where applicable, and made other improvements.
Continuous Service (repeal)
OAR 459-010-0005, Continuous Service, provides a standard for determining prior service credit for periods of employment before an employer began participating in PERS, service credit for a political subdivision, which had withdrawn before July 1, 1956, and service credit with the state for a period before July 1, 1946. In addition, the rule clarifies continuity of service for employees returning to service with a participating employer or who returned from the U.S. Armed Forces as of January 1, 1945.
This rule is now obsolete. Any eligible employer who is not currently participating in PERS would not be allowed to integrate into the PERS Chapter 238 Program. Administrative rules already exist for crediting service for employees while serving in the uniformed services or U.S. Armed Forces under OAR Chapter 459, Division 11 - Retirement Credit.
Uncollectable Debt (temporary adoption)
House Bill 2252, which became effective June 2, 2011, provides a state agency direct authority to write off uncollectible debts on its accounts under its own criteria (previously, the secretary of state and attorney general had to approve the criteria). The new rule establishes the criteria, which are mandated by HB 2252 for PERS. As the attorney general must still approve the agency's criteria, the new rule adopts the model criteria they provided.
Disability Rules
In 2005, PERS adopted changes to its administrative rules governing the disability retirement program for Tier One and Tier Two members, and adopted new rules for the administration of OPSRP Disability Benefits. PERS' Internal Auditors, in Report #2011-03 dated October 12, 2010, reviewed the agency's periodic review and contested case process for the Tier One/Tier Two disability program and recommended further clarifications to the administrative rules. These modifications are in response to that audit finding. Staff is also proposing rule modifications to the OPSRP Disability rules to align the rules where applicable, and make other improvements.
Retention of Membership by School Employees
Under ORS 238.095, school district employees who are not vested and inactive for a period of five consecutive years may continue membership in the system if they meet two criteria. First, after completing a school year, the member must be inactive for the next following five school years. Secondly, the member must either be reemployed by a school district in a qualifying position at the beginning of the sixth school year, or reach earliest service retirement age before the beginning of the sixth school year. These criteria are specified in nearly identical language in ORS and OAR, therefore the OAR is unnecessary and proposed for repeal.
Combined and Concurrent Service
Two rules were added to capture and clarify the standards to be used in making retirement eligibility determinations and benefit calculations, and two obsolete rules were repealed:
459-010-0019, Retirement Eligibility
This new rule clarifies the retirement eligibility of combined and concurrent job classes.
459-013-0050, Combined Service
This new rule provides a method for applying statutory factors to employment periods with different job classes.
459-010-0165, Transfer into a New Classification and 459-010-0170, Retirement Age and Contribution Rate of One Employed in Two Classes of Service
These rules become redundant with the new rules and were repealed.
Self-Directed Brokerage Option
The Oregon Investment Council (OIC) approved the addition of a Self-Directed Brokerage Option (SDBO) to the Oregon Savings Growth Plan (OSGP). A new rule, OAR 459-050-0120, was developed at Treasury's request to impose some restrictions on the use of the SDBO. The rule provides that a participant's account balance must be at least $20,000 to begin participating in the SDBO and, at any time, the amount of the trade may not exceed 50% of the participant's OSGP account balance on the date of the trade. Also, subsequent trades cannot be made if the trade would cause the participant's balance in the SDBO to exceed 50% of the participant's OSGP account balance on the day of the trade.
In addition, Dwight Asset Management, which manages the Stable Value Option fund for OSGP, requires a restriction to be placed on transfers to the SDBO in the same manner as it currently applies to the Short Term Fixed and Intermediate Bond options. As such, the trading restrictions in OAR 459-050-0037 were modified to specify that no trade may move monies directly from the Stable Value Option to the SDBO.
A participant's funds in the SDBO are not available for loans, unforeseeable emergency withdrawals, or distributions, including Required Minimum Distributions. Therefore, modifications to OAR 459-050-0077, 459-050-0150 and 459-050-0300 address this.
Unrelated to the SDBO option but while the rule was open for rulemaking, modifications to OAR 459-050-0150 eliminate the requirement that the unforeseeable emergency occur within a defined period before or after application for the emergency withdrawal.
Social Security
ORS 237.410 to 237.515 govern the extension of Social Security benefits to employees of the state and certain political subdivisions. Under these statutes, the Public Employees Retirement Board administers the state of Oregon's responsibilities under the Social Security coverage agreement. As such, the PERS Board has promulgated rules detailing its administration of the program; those rules have not been reviewed or modified in quite awhile, but are now being updated through this rulemaking process. Several of the rules were repealed because the content is either obsolete or already sufficiently covered in state and federal law.
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