2023 New Mexico Statutes › Chapter 10 - Public Officers and Employees › Article 11 - Retirement of Public Officers and Employees Generally › Section 10-11-130 - Retirement board; authority; membership.

A. The "retirement board" is created and is the trustee of the association and the funds created by the state retirement system acts and has all the powers necessary or convenient to carry out and effectuate the purposes and provisions of the state retirement system acts, including, in addition to any specific powers provided for in the Public Employees Retirement Act but without limiting the generality of the foregoing, the power to:
(1) administer the state retirement system acts, including the management of the association and making effective the provisions of those acts, as well as to administer and manage any other employee benefit acts as provided by law;
(2) in addition to utilizing services of the attorney general and notwithstanding any other provision of law, employ or contract with and compensate competent legal counsel to handle the legal matters and litigation of the retirement board and the association and to give advice and counsel in regard to any matter connected with the duties of the retirement board;
(3) administer oaths;
(4) adopt and use a seal for authentication of records, processes and proceedings;
(5) create and maintain records relating to all members, affiliated public employers and all activities and duties required of the retirement board;
(6) issue subpoenas and compel the production of evidence and attendance of witnesses in connection with any hearings or proceedings of the retirement board;
(7) make and execute contracts;
(8) purchase, acquire or hold land adjacent to the state capitol grounds or other suitable location and build thereon a building to house the association and its employees and, in the event additional office space is available in the building after the retirement board and its employees have been housed, to rent or lease the additional space to any public agency or private person; provided that first priority for the rental or leasing shall be to public agencies; and further provided that for the purpose of purchasing, acquiring or holding the land and the building thereon, the retirement board may use funds from the income fund and any other funds controlled by the retirement board the use of which for such purposes is not prohibited by law;
(9) after the sale of the land and building acquired pursuant to Paragraph (8) of this subsection, acquire land and build thereon a new building to house the association and its employees and hold the building and land in fee simple in the name of the association. In order to acquire the land and plan, design and construct the building, the retirement board may expend the proceeds of the sale of the land and building acquired pursuant to Paragraph (8) of this subsection or any funds controlled by the board, the use of which for such purposes is not otherwise prohibited by law;
(10) make and adopt such reasonable rules as may be necessary or convenient to carry out the duties of the retirement board and activities of the association, including any rules necessary to preserve the status of the association as a qualified pension plan under the provisions of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended, or under successor or related provisions of law;
(11) designate committees and designate committee members, including individuals who may not be members of the association; and
(12) select and contract for the services of one or more custodian banks for all funds under the retirement board's management. For the purpose of this paragraph, "custodian bank" means a financial institution with the general fiduciary duties to manage, control and collect the assets of an investment fund, including receiving all deposits and paying all disbursements as directed by staff, safekeeping of assets, coordination of asset transfers, timely settlement of securities transactions and accurate and timely reporting of the assets by individual account and in total.
B. The retirement board consists of:
(1) the secretary of state;
(2) the state treasurer;
(3) four members under a state coverage plan to be elected by the members under state coverage plans;
(4) four members under a municipal coverage plan to be elected by the members under municipal coverage plans, provided one member shall be a municipal member employed by a county; and
(5) two retired members to be elected by the retired members of the association.
C. The results of elections of elected members of the retirement board shall be certified at the annual meeting of the association. Elections shall be conducted according to rules the retirement board adopts from time to time.
D. The regular term of office of the elected members of the retirement board is four years. The term of one retirement board member under a state coverage plan expires annually on December 31. The terms of retirement board members under a municipal coverage plan expire on December 31 of noncoinciding years in the pattern set by the retirement board. Members of the retirement board serve until their successors have qualified.
E. A member elected to the retirement board who fails to attend four consecutively scheduled meetings of the retirement board, unless in each case excused for cause by the retirement board members in attendance, is considered to have resigned from the retirement board, and the retirement board shall by resolution declare the office vacated as of the date of adoption of the resolution. A vacancy occurring on the retirement board, except in the case of an elected official, shall be filled by the remaining retirement board members, without requirement that a quorum be present. The member appointed to fill the vacancy serves for the remainder of the vacated term.
F. Members of the retirement board serve without salary for their services as retirement board members, but they shall receive those amounts authorized under the Per Diem and Mileage Act [10-8-1 to 10-8-8 NMSA 1978].
G. The retirement board shall hold four regular meetings each year and shall designate in advance the time and place of the meetings. Special meetings and emergency meetings of the retirement board may be held upon call of the chair or any three members of the retirement board. Written notice of special meetings shall be sent to each member of the retirement board at least seventy-two hours in advance of the special meeting. Verbal notice of emergency meetings shall be given to as many members as is feasible at least eight hours before the emergency meeting, and the meeting shall commence with a statement of the nature of the emergency. The retirement board shall adopt its own rules of procedure and shall keep a record of its proceedings. All meetings of the retirement board shall comply with the Open Meetings Act [Chapter 10, Article 15 NMSA 1978]. A majority of retirement board members shall constitute a quorum. Each attending member of the retirement board is entitled to one vote on each question before the retirement board, and at least a majority of a quorum shall be necessary for a decision by the retirement board.
H. Annual meetings of the members of the association shall be held in Santa Fe at such time and place as the retirement board shall from time to time determine. Special meetings of the members of the association shall be held in Santa Fe upon call of any seven retirement board members. The retirement board shall send a written notice to the last known residence address of each member currently employed by an affiliated public employer at least ten days prior to any meeting of the members of the association. The notice shall contain the call of the meeting and the principal purpose of the meeting. All meetings of the association shall be public and shall be conducted according to procedures the retirement board shall from time to time adopt. The retirement board shall keep a record of the proceedings of each meeting of the association.
I. Neither the retirement board nor the association shall allow public inspection of, or disclosure of, information from any member or retiree file unless a prior release and consent, in the form prescribed by the association, has been executed by the member or retiree; except that applicable coverage plans, amounts of retirement plan contributions made by members and affiliated public employers, pension amounts paid and the names and addresses of public employees retirement association members or retirees requested for election purposes by candidates for election to the retirement board may be produced or disclosed without release or consent.
History:
Laws 1987, ch. 253, § 130; 1992, ch. 116, § 10; 1995, ch. 115, § 2; 1997, ch. 189, § 9; 2005, ch. 147, § 1; 2011, ch. 27, § 1.
ANNOTATIONS
Cross references.
— For the federal Internal Revenue Code,
see
26 U.S.C. § 1 et seq.
The 2011 amendment,
effective June 17, 2011, authorized the board to select a custodian bank.
Temporary provisions.
— Laws 2011, ch. 178, § 14 provided:
A. No later than September 30, 2013, the retirement board of the public employees retirement association and the educational retirement board shall each cause an actuarial study to be conducted for each retirement system administered by the board. Each study shall analyze whether the higher employee contribution rates and lower employer contribution rates required by Laws 2011, Chapter 178 and Laws 2009, Chapter 127 have had or will have an adverse actuarial effect on the retirement system in violation of Article 20, Section 22 of the constitution of New Mexico. The results of each study shall be submitted to the legislative finance committee and the governor.
B. If a study concludes that a retirement system has had or will have an adverse actuarial effect as a result of the higher employee contribution rates and the lower employer contribution rates required by Laws 2011, Chapter 178 and Laws 2009, Chapter 127, the board that administers that retirement system shall submit a request for a supplemental appropriation to the second session of the fifty-first legislature in the amount that will rectify the adverse actuarial effect.
The 2005 amendment,
effective April 5, 2005, added Subsection A(9) to grant the power to acquire land and build a new building on the land to house the public employees retirement association.
The 1997 amendment,
effective June 20, 1997, in Paragraph A(2), inserted "and notwithstanding any other provision of law", inserted "or contract with and compensate" and inserted "and litigation"; rewrote Subsection C; in Subsection E, separated the former last sentence into two sentences, deleted "until the next election of the association, at which time a successor shall be elected" following "present" and added "The member appointed to fill the vacancy shall serve" at the beginning of the last sentence; and added Subsection I.
The 1995 amendment,
effective June 16, 1995, substituted "two retired members" for "one retired member" in Subsection B(5) and "retirement board members" for "retirement board member" in Subsection F.
The 1992 amendment,
effective July 1, 1992, inserted "and the funds created by the state retirement system acts" and substituted "state retirement system acts" for "Public Employees Retirement Act" in the introductory paragraph of Subsection A; substituted "state retirement system acts" for "Public Employees Retirement Act" and "those acts" for "that act" in Subsection A(1); deleted "and, in the discretion of the retirement board" at the end of Subsection A(2); substituted "capitol" for "capital" and deleted "public employees retirement" preceding "association" near the beginning of Subsection A(8); substituted "Internal Revenue Code of 1986" for "Internal Revenue Code of the United States" in Subsection A(9); deleted "at least" following "provided" in Subsection B(4); and, in Subsection H, inserted "currently employed by an affiliated public employer" in the third sentence, while adding "of the members of the association" at the end of that sentence.
Effect of employment termination on board membership.
— There is nothing in the [Public Employees] Retirement Act for the termination of membership on the retirement board upon termination of employment. 1959 Op. Att'y Gen. No. 59-191.
The public office of member of the Public Employees Retirement Board,
a state agency, is a nonsalaried, policy-making position. Board members have no constitutionally protected property interest in the position. 1989 Op. Att'y Gen. No. 89-24.
Amendment to board rule concerning nominations to the board was legal,
where the board complied with procedural rule-making requirements, the rule did not conflict with the board's statutory authority, and the amendment did not operate retroactively to divest any nominee of any vested right. 1989 Op. Att'y Gen. No. 89-24.
Rule limiting member composition to one member complies with subsection.
— Subsection B(4) requires that "at least one" municipal member on the board be a county employee, but does not require that more than one be a county employee. Therefore, a board rule limiting the municipal member composition to only one county member complies with the subsection. 1989 Op. Att'y Gen. No. 89-24. (decided prior to 1992 amendment.)
The public employee retirement association possesses the legal authority to deduct union dues, and the administrative costs of such deductions, from pension benefits.
— The Public Employees Retirement Act (act) does not address whether the public employees retirement association (PERA) may deduct union dues for its beneficiaries that are also union members, but it does appear that the policy purpose behind the act is to ensure that members benefit from a state-backed retirement plan that accounts for membership needs, including remittance or withholding of funds on behalf of its members, and therefore, where a subsection of PERA's beneficiaries sought dues deductions from their respective benefit amounts for union membership, PERA had the legal authority to deduct union dues from pension benefits of PERA members who are also members of unions. Furthermore, if this subsection of beneficiaries consent to absorbing the administrative costs that accompany the deductions and subsequent remittances to the unions, the subject beneficiaries are knowingly and willingly accepting those administrative costs, which would also appear to comply with the act.
PERA Deduction of Dues from PERA Retirement Benefits for RPENM and AFSCME Members and Reimbursement of PERA's Administrative Costs for the Dues Deduction
(8/25/21), Att'y Gen. Adv. Ltr. 2021-09.