(a) On or after January 1, 2003, a member who is credited with less than the number of years of service required for vesting shall have the right to elect to leave accumulated contributions on deposit in the local agency‘s retirement fund. Failure to make an election to withdraw accumulated contributions shall be deemed an election to leave accumulated contributions on deposit in the retirement fund.

(b) An election to allow accumulated contributions to remain in the retirement fund may be revoked by the member at any time except: (1) while the member is employed in service in a position in which the member is not excluded from membership in the local system retirement fund with respect to that service; (2) while the member is in service as a member of public retirement system supported, in whole or in part, by state funds; or (3) while the member is in service, entered within six months after discontinuing county service, as a member of a reciprocal retirement system. All accumulated contributions contributed up to the time of revocation may then be withdrawn.

(c) A member whose membership continues under this section is subject to the same age, service, and disability requirements as apply to other members for service or disability retirement. After the qualification of the member for retirement by reason of age, which shall be the lowest age applicable to any membership category in which the member has credited service, disability, the member shall be entitled to receive a retirement allowance based upon the amount of the member’s accumulated contributions and service standing to the member’s credit at the time of retirement and on the employer contributions held for the member and calculated in the same manner as for other members.

(d) Service, solely for purposes of meeting minimum service qualifications for service or disability retirement, shall also include service credited as an employee of a reciprocal system when the member retires concurrently from all reciprocal retirement systems. A member whose combined service from all reciprocal retirement systems does not meet the minimum service qualifications may not receive a service or disability retirement from this system.

(e) For purposes of this section, “accumulated contributions” means the sum of all member contributions standing to the credit of a member’s individual account, and interest thereon.

(f) It is the intent of the Legislature in enacting this section to recognize that the state has a compelling interest in ensuring that its public agencies recruit and retain the highest caliber of public employees by allowing local public employees to retain the service credit that they earned through their service as local public employees in order to encourage them to return to public employment and continue to serve the public.

(Added by Stats. 2002, Ch. 883, Sec. 8. Effective January 1, 2003.)