Opinion ID: 2546975
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Interpreting first hired

Text: On appeal to this court, the Bartleys insist that they were qualified for normal retirement under AS 14.25.110(a)(1) because they were first hired by the BIA before July 1, 1975. The Division and Board both interpreted AS 14.25.110(a)(1) as making normal retirement available only to those teachers first hired before July 1, 1975 by a TRS employer. To resolve this dispute, this court must interpret first hired, the meaning of which is a question of law not involving agency expertise that the court answers using its independent judgment. Cf. Flisock v. State, Division of Retirement and Benefits, 818 P.2d 640, 642 (Alaska 1991).
In the 1960's there was no distinction between normal and early retirement; TRS members were eligible for retirement at age 55 if they had been in membership service for the prior five years and had a total of at least 10 years of membership service and 15 years of creditable service. See Sec. 4, ch. 86, SLA 1963 (amending AS 14.25.110). By 1973, normal retirement was available to 60-year-old teachers with 15 years of creditable service, the last five of which were membership service, but 55-year-old teachers with such records were only eligible for early retirement. See Sec. 8, ch. 66, SLA 1973 (repealing and reenacting AS 14.25.110). In 1974, the governing statute was modified to permit 60-year-old teachers with 8 years of membership service to retire normally, but there was no modification of the retirement requirements for 55-year-olds. See Sec. 2, ch. 57, SLA 1974 (amending AS 14.25.110(a)). The distinction between teachers hired before and after July 1, 1975 originated in legislative changes adopted in 1975. Chapter 173 of the 1975 Session Laws changed AS 14.25.110(a) to read as follows: A teacher is eligible for normal retirement if he has completed either (1) at least 15 years of creditable service, the last five of which have been membership service, except that a member first hired after July 1, 1975 must have eight years of membership service, and has attained the age of 55 years ... See Sec. 1, ch. 173, SLA 1975. As a result of these changes, 55-year-old teachers with 15 years of creditable service hired after July 1, 1975 were required to have at least eight years of membership servicethree more years of membership service than was required of teachers first hired before July 1, 1975. The statute was again revised in 1980, but retained the requirement of eight years of membership service for normal retirement of 55-year-old teachers hired after July 1, 1975: A member is eligible for a normal retirement benefit if he (1) was first hired before July 1, 1975, has at least 15 years of credited service, the last five of which have been membership service; (2) has attained the age of 55 years and has at least eight years of membership service; [or] (3) has attained the age of 55 years, has at least 5 years of membership service, and has at least three years of Alaska BIA service; ... Sec. 14, ch. 13, SLA 1980. Although the permutations for BIA service shifted slightly during legislative changes in 1986, the lower membership service requirement for teachers first hired before July 1, 1975 endured. See Sec.1, ch. 177, SLA 1986 and Sec.1, ch. 81, SLA 1986. When the minimum normal retirement age for teachers with eight years of membership service increased from 55 years to 60 years in 1990, the legislature retained the provision permitting teachers first hired before July 1, 1975 to retire at age 55 based on fifteen years of credited service, the last five of which were membership service. See Sec. 5, ch. 97, SLA 1990. A second bill passed in 1990 modified the requirements to AS 14.25.110(a)(1) to permit the normal retirement of 55-year-old teachers based either on fifteen years of credited service the last five of which were membership service or on being otherwise vested in the system. See Sec. 1, ch. 79, SLA 1990.
Since the 1990 revisions, Alaska Statute 14.25.110(a) has provided that a member is eligible for a normal retirement benefit if the member (1) 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[.] The statutory language first hired before July 1, 1975 thus preserves a historical distinction between teachers hired before and after the effective date of the 1975 legislative revisions. The continued distinction makes sense because teachers who joined the TRS system before that date cannot constitutionally be made subject to subsequent increases in age and length of service requirements. See Flisock v. State, Division of Retirement & Benefits, 818 P.2d 640, 643 (Alaska 1991) (interpreting article XII, section 7 of the Alaska Constitution). AS 14.25.110(a) specifies that a member is eligible for a normal retirement benefit if the member (1) was first hired before [a certain date] and [satisfies certain service criteria]. The use of the word member, and the historical and statutory context of AS 14.25.110(a)(1) suggest that the term first hired refers to when a member was first hired into the TRS system, and does not refer to the date on which a teacher may have been first hired into other creditable employment. The Bartleys point to other statutes in which the legislature has been more explicit about which employment satisfies time-sensitive hiring requirements. But greater specificity in unrelated statutes does not prove that the legislature intended to interpret first hired in this statute to refer to the teacher being first hired into any creditable employment before July 1, 1975. And, contrary to the Bartleys' suggestion, there is no legal or equitable preference favoring a construction of first hired that would make normal retirement available to 55-year-old teachers who entered the TRS system toward the end of careers begun elsewhere before 1975. Comparison to other TRS members now eligible for normal retirementsuch as those with 25 years of credited service or 20 years of membership servicedoes not demonstrate that the legislature intended to make TRS members with only 15 years of credited service, 5 in membership service, eligible for normal retirement benefits at age 55 simply because they were first hired into creditable service by a non-TRS employer before July 1, 1975. The Bartleys, who did not become TRS members until they were hired by the District in 1991, were not entitled to a normal retirement benefit under AS 14.25.110(a)(1) because they were not first hired into the TRS system before July 1, 1975.