Opinion ID: 2546975
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Otherwise vested

Text: Alaska Statute 14.25.110(a)(1) provides that normal retirement benefits are available to a member who was first hired before July 1, 1975, has attained the age of 55 years, and has at least 15 years of credited service, the last five of which have been membership service or is otherwise vested in the system [.] (emphasis added) The Bartleys contend that they should qualify for normal retirement under AS 14.25.110(a)(1) because they must be otherwise vested. They contend that they must have been vested because participation in the RIP was limited to vested TRS members. See Sec. 2, ch. 65, SLA 1996. An active member of TRS is vested if the member has any of the following: (A) 15 years of service, the last five of which have been membership service, for a member first hired before July 1, 1975; (B) eight years of membership service; (C) five years of membership and three years of BIA service; (D) 12 school years of part-time membership service or 12 school years in each of which the member earned either part-time or full-time membership service. AS 14.25.220(42). The Bartleys reason that since they were accepted into the RIP and they do not satisfy vesting criteria (B), (C), or (D), they must have been first hired before July 1, 1975 under subsection (A) and therefore qualify for normal retirement benefits under AS 14.25.110(a)(1). The Bartleys' argument is without merit. At the time of the Bartleys' retirement, AS 14.25.110 required that 55-year-old teachers have at least five years of TRS service and at least three years of BIA service to be entitled to early retirement. Since 2000, early retirement has been available to teachers with at least five years of membership service and Alaska BIA service, which when added to the membership service, will equal at least eight years. See Sec. 7, ch. 68, SLA 2000. The Division may well have designated the Bartleys early retirees based on AS 14.25.110(b) and expansively interpreted former AS 14.25.110(a)(3) in the manner now codified in the 2000 amendment. The Division might also have generously interpreted vesting criteria (C), which is identical for former AS 14.25.110(a)(3), so as to allow the Bartleys to participate in the RIP based on their seven years of membership service and two years of BIA service. There is no indication that the Division considered the Bartleys to be vested based on having first been hired before July 1, 1975. And if the Division had done so, that error does not constrain this court's independent interpretation of the statutory prerequisites to normal retirement or the vesting criteria. Under a strict construction of the then-existing statute, the Bartleys did not satisfy any of the vesting criteria. Yet the issue is immaterial, because the Bartleys were accepted into the RIP program as early retirees, and received the substantial benefits of that program. The Division's favorable determination to the Bartleys in that regard is not on appeal. Irrespective of that determination, the Bartleys were not first hired by a TRS employer until 1991 and are not entitled to normal retirement benefits.