FROM: Barbara Hannah, Chief Counsel
SUBJECT: Informational: Disability Retirement Process
RECOMMENDATION:
title
Review CERL system survey regarding the disability retirement processes.
body
BACKGROUND:
At the request of Trustee Mason, staff conducted a survey of other retirement systems governed by the County Employees' Retirement Law (CERL) to better understand how disability retirement initial hearings are administered and whether a Disability Retirement Committee is utilized.
Staff contacted and/or reviewed publicly available materials from the various retirement systems. The survey sought general information regarding (1) the decision-making body used for the initial determination; (2) the existence and composition of any Committee; and (3) the role of the committee in making recommendations or decisions.
The survey results indicate the 20 CERL retirement systems employ similar approaches when conducting disability retirement initial hearing:
Board of Retirement: 17
Disability Committee: 1
Information Unavailable: 2 (most likely the Board because each of the two systems do not have a standing disability retirement committee.)
Staff believes that a primary reason the majority of CERL systems have not adopted a committee-based approach similar to that of the one CERL system is the clear statutory language in the CERL. Government Code section 31720 provides that a member is retired for disability only when the Board of Retirement finds that the member is permanently incapacitated. Since a committee does not constitute the full Board, a final determination regarding disability retirement cannot be made by a committee alone.
In light of this statutory framework, staff met with representatives from the one CERL system utilizing a Disability Committee to better understand their process. Under this model, cases are first presented to the Committee, which reviews the matter and makes a recommendation to either grant or deny the ap...
Click here for full text