2023 West Virginia Code › Chapter 8. Municipal Corporations › Article 22A. West Virginia Municipal Police Officers and Firefighters Retirement System › §8-22A-32. Membership Retroactive in Certain Circumstances

(a) Notwithstanding all other provisions relating to this article and article twenty-two of this chapter, any police officer or firefighter hired by a participating public employer on or after June 1, 2009, and before January 1, 2010, who received notice at the time of employment that he or she may be placed in a new retirement system created by legislation and who has been enrolled in but received no benefits from a municipal policemen’s or firemen’s pension and relief fund shall, if permitted by applicable federal law, be enrolled in the Municipal Police Officers and Firefighters Retirement System upon acceptance by the Consolidated Public Retirement Board of the resolution of the municipality required by section twenty-eight of this article. Employee and employer contributions made by or on behalf of the employee to the municipal pension and relief fund pursuant to article twenty-two of this chapter shall be transferred within sixty days to the retirement system created in this article and the employee subject to the transfer shall receive service credit for time worked while a member of the municipal pension and relief fund.
(b) Notwithstanding any other provision of the code to the contrary, any police officer or firefighter hired by a participating public employer on or after July 1, 2015, who chooses pursuant to section thirty-three of this article to be a member of the plan, shall be a member of the plan upon acceptance by the Consolidated Public Retirement Board of the notification by the municipality required by section thirty-three of this article.
(1) The Consolidated Public Retirement Board shall transfer assets and service credit earned on or after July 1, 2015, from the Public Employees Retirement System Trust Fund into the West Virginia Municipal Police Officers and Firefighters Retirement Fund for those police officers or firefighters who elect to be a member of the plan and were members in the Public Employees Retirement System no later than sixty days from receipt of notification by the municipality or municipal subdivision of the police officer or firefighter’s election to become a member. The amount of service credit recognized by the plan for the transferring employees shall be the service credit transferred and recognized by the Public Employees Retirement System.
(2) The amount of assets to be transferred for each police officer or firefighter shall be computed as of the actuarial valuation date preceding the notification to the Consolidated Public Retirement Board by the municipality or municipal subdivision of the police officer or firefighter’s election to become a member and updated with seven and one-half percent annual interest to the date of the actual asset transfer. For purposes of this section, the actuarial valuation date is the most recent actuarial valuation of the Public Employees Retirement System approved by the Consolidated Public Retirement Board. The market value of the assets of the transferring employees in the Public Employees Retirement System shall be determined as of the end of the month preceding the actual transfer. To determine the computation of the asset share to be transferred, the Consolidated Public Retirement Board shall:
(A) Compute the market value of the Public Employees Retirement System assets using the actuarial valuation date;
(B) Compute the actuarial accrued liabilities for all Public Employees Retirement System retirees, beneficiaries, disabled retirees and terminated inactive members using the actuarial valuation date:
(C) Compute the market value of active member assets in the Public Retirement System as of the actuarial valuation date by reducing the assets value under paragraph (A) of this subdivision by the inactive liabilities under paragraph (B) of this subdivision;
(D) Compute the actuarial accrued liability for all active Public Employees Retirement System members using the actuarial valuation date immediately preceding the computation date;
(E) Compute the funded percentage of the active members' actuarial accrued liabilities under the Public Employees Retirement System as of the actuarial valuation date by dividing the active members' market value of assets under paragraph (C) of this subdivision by the active members' actuarial accrued liabilities under paragraph (D) of this subsection;
(F) Compute the actuarial accrued liabilities under the Public Employees Retirement System as of the actuarial valuation date for active employees transferring to the plan;
(G) Determine the assets to be transferred from the Public Employees Retirement System to the plan by multiplying the active members' funded percentage determined under paragraph (E) of this subdivision by the transferring active members' actuarial accrued liabilities under the Public Employees Retirement System under paragraph (F) of this subdivision and adjusting the asset transfer amount by interest at seven and five-tenths percent for the period from the calculation date of July 1 through the first day of the month in which the asset transfer is to be completed.
(3) Any police officer or firefighter who elects to become a member of the plan must also pay to the plan a four percent contribution no later than June 30, 2019. The contribution shall be calculated as four percent of the member’s total earnings for which assets are transferred, plus interest of seven and one-half percent accumulated from the date of the police officer’s or firefighter’s initial participation in the Public Employees Retirement System through the calculation date. Installment payments may be made over no more than a twenty-four month period plus seven and one-half percent interest shall accrue on the outstanding balance due from the calculation date until paid in full.
(4) Once an employee transfers from the Public Employees Retirement System to the plan, the Public Employees Retirement System shall bar any further liability and said transfer will constitute an agreement whereby the transferring employee forever indemnifies and holds harmless the Public Employees Retirement System from providing him or her any form of retirement benefit whatsoever until that employee obtains other employment which would make him or her eligible to reenter the Public Employees Retirement System with no credit whatsoever for the amounts transferred to the plan.