|
Senate Bill 1667 |
Senate Author: Duncan |
|
Effective: 9-1-11 |
House Sponsor: Truitt |
Senate Bill 1667 amends provisions of the Government Code relating to the administration of the Teacher Retirement System of Texas (TRS). The bill entitles TRS to obtain from a law enforcement agency criminal history record information, including information that is the subject of an order of nondisclosure, that relates to certain persons who work for, contract with, or volunteer for TRS or who apply to work for or propose to enter into a contract with TRS. The bill makes the failure or refusal of an employee or applicant to provide certain items or information necessary for a law enforcement entity to obtain criminal history record information cause for dismissal or refusal to hire.
Senate Bill 1667 authorizes the TRS board of trustees or a board committee to hold a meeting by telephone conference call if a quorum of the applicable board or board committee is physically present at one location of the meeting and establishes specific requirements for the conduct of such a meeting. The bill excepts the name of an applicant for the position of TRS executive director, chief investment officer, or chief audit executive from disclosure under the state's open records law but requires the board to give public notice of the names of three finalists being considered for one of those positions before taking a final action or vote on the selection of a finalist for employment.
Senate Bill 1667 allows a domestic relations order to be considered a qualified domestic relations order if the order provides, as an alternative to a social security number, an express authorization for the parties to use an alternate method acceptable to the public retirement system to verify the social security number of each party covered by the order and allows a public retirement system to reject a domestic relations order as a qualified domestic relations order if the order does not conform to a model order adopted by the system, if the system so requires. The bill authorizes a public retirement system to assess administrative fees on a party who is subject to a domestic relations order for the review of the order and for the administration of payments under an order that is determined to be qualified. The bill establishes that a prohibition against advocacy or legislative lobbying or the use of system assets to advocate or lobby does not prohibit comments by a TRS employee on federal laws, regulations, or other official actions or proposed actions affecting or potentially affecting TRS that are made in accordance with board policies nor prohibit the use of system assets by an employee to make such comments.
Senate Bill 1667 requires a TRS member to notify the retirement system of membership service that has not been properly credited by TRS on an annual statement, requires the member to provide verification and make deposits as required before the service may be credited, and sets notification deadlines. The bill authorizes TRS to deduct the amount of a person's indebtedness to the system from an amount payable by the system to the person or the person's estate and the distributees of the estate and, if the system makes a payment to a deceased participant and the payment is not payable, to deduct the amount of the payment from any amount payable by the system to a person who received the payment or to that person's estate and its distributees.
Senate Bill 1667 entitles a beneficiary designated after a member's retirement, on the retiree's death, to receive monthly payments of the survivor's portion of the retiree's optional retirement annuity for the remainder of the beneficiary's life if the beneficiary designated at the time of the retiree's retirement is a trust and the beneficiary designated after retirement is the sole beneficiary of that trust. The bill adds the revocation of a beneficiary designation under a divorce decree and the ineligibility of a person to receive benefits for having caused the death of the member or annuitant to the conditions under which certain death benefits become payable and rights to elect survivor benefits, if applicable, become available to one of the classes of persons eligible to receive benefits in the absence of a designated beneficiary. The bill renders a person ineligible to receive a death benefit if the person is found not guilty by reason of insanity of causing the death of the member or annuitant or is the subject of an indictment, information, complaint, or other charging instrument alleging that the person caused the death of the member or annuitant and the person is determined to be incompetent to stand trial.
Senate Bill 1667 makes certain provisions relating to the conditions under which a member is eligible to retire and receive a standard service retirement annuity applicable only to a TRS member who becomes a member on or after September 1, 2007, rather than on or after September 1, 2006. The bill requires the TRS board of trustees to extend the tables used in determining a death benefit annuity to ages earlier than indicated in the tables.
Senate Bill 1667 revises procedures relating to the method for nominating candidates for the governor's consideration in making appointments to the TRS board of trustees and to the governor's appointment of such trustees based on the number of persons nominated. The bill requires the board of trustees to redesignate its actuary every four years, rather than every three years, and makes provisions relating to an employing school district's failure to remit all required member and employer deposits applicable to an employer generally. The bill authorizes TRS, if an executor or administrator of a deceased participant's estate has not been named, to release the participant's record to a person or entity who the executive director determines is acting in the interest of the deceased participant's estate or who is an heir, legatee, or devisee.
Current law requires TRS to acquire and maintain records identifying members and the types of positions they hold as members. Senate Bill 1667 adds the position of peace officer as a type of position to be identified. The bill makes provisions relating to contributions held in trust by an employer for the retired school employees group insurance fund and its participants applicable to an employing public school and its governing body and makes provisions relating to the interest assessed on a late payment by an employer of the required contributions to the retired school employees group insurance fund applicable to an employing public school. The bill authorizes the state to make a lesser contribution to TRS for the state fiscal year ending August 31, 2012, and to the retired school employees group insurance fund for the state fiscal year ending August 31, 2013, than is otherwise provided by law.