Supplemental Regulations
MEMBERSHIP:
- April 6, 2015:
A regular employee of the City of Gloucester or the Gloucester Housing Authority, who works a minimum of 20 hours per week for 180 school days for the school employee for the school year or 52 weeks per calendar year for City or GHA employees in a calendar year shall be enrolled in the Gloucester Retirement System, except contract employees, consultants, per diem employees, fee for service employees, on-call employees, and those employees hired/ or classified as temporary, substitute, provisional, intermittent, seasonal, or seasonal emergency are not eligible for membership.
Upon becoming a member of the Gloucester Retirement System, any member may purchase any past service rendered as a part-time, provisional, temporary, substitute, seasonal, or intermittent employee, provided that the member remits to the Gloucester Retirement Board the amount of contributions that would have been withheld from payment for such service, together with statutory interest, had he or she been a member of the System at the time the service was rendered
- September 9, 2015
Employees, elected, and appointed officials earning less than $5,000 per year are ineligible for initial membership.
CREDITABLE SERVICE:
- April 6, 2015:
A member employed on a full time basis who becomes part-time shall receive credit for his part-time service based on the full time equivalency of that position.
Full time employees to receive 1 year of creditable service for each year employed. Part time employees whose position has always been part time are granted full creditable service provided that the hours never fluctuated and the employee stayed at a minimum of 20 hours per week in a calendar year if a City or Gloucester Housing Employee or 20 hours per week in a school year if a school employee.
Any request by a member to purchase past service will have the rules stated above applied to their past service to determine creditable service.
- April 6, 2015:
Forms:
Affidavit of Marital Status Upon Retirement or Refund of Accumulated Deductions
Public Records:
The Annuity Portion of a Retirement Allowance and Medical Records are not public records.
Buyback:
The Board does not permit the purchase of past service of any other position which is paid via 1099 Form rather than a W-2.
It shall be the sole responsibility of the member to obtain, and provide to the Board, verification of this past service rendered, including but not limited to payroll records indicating the amount of compensation received and the amount of hours worked. In the event that any or all of such original documentation is unavailable, the Board may exercise its discretion pursuant to G.L. c 32 § 20(5) (c) (1), on a case by case basis, to accept alternative documentation to verify said service.
Creditable service may be purchased one of two ways:
1. Lump sum payment.
2. Two equal payments distributed over two (2) consecutive months.
Creditable Service buyback payments must commence within 30 days of the date of acceptance by the board.
Military Buyback:
Members seeking to purchase military service under G.L. c. 32 § 4(1)(h) shall have 180 days from the time the member is first notified of his/her potential right to purchase such service. Once notified of such potential right, a member’s subsequent change of employment or re-entry into the Retirement System shall not provide the member with additional rights under said statute.
Liability:
The Gloucester Retirement Board will not accept any liability pursuant to G.L. c. 32 § 3(8)(c) for employment service to the City of Gloucester or the Gloucester Housing Authority, which did not qualify the employee for membership in the Gloucester Retirement System unless the employee subsequently became a member of the Gloucester Retirement System and purchased said service while employed by the City of Gloucester or the Gloucester Housing Authority.
Redeposits of refunds taken from other retirement systems are excluded from this regulation.
- March 16, 2005
Elections:
The Gloucester Retirement Board shall conduct a simultaneous election for the two elected members of the Board. Both terms of the elected members shall be for three years and expire on the same date. In conducting the election, the Board shall place all candidates who have been nominated on one ballot. All eligible candidates shell be listed on the ballot in an order determined by a random drawing of the names of the candidates.
In the event that only two candidates have been nominated, the Board shall declare said candidates to be the elected members of the Board, no election shall be held, and said candidates shall take office and serve in all respects as though he or she had been elected by election. If there are more than two candidates, an election shall be conducted and each active member of or retired from the Gloucester Retirement Board shall be allowed to vote for not more than two candidates. Upon tabulation of the ballots, the two candidates who receive the most votes shall be declared the elected member of the Board. Elections shall be done by mail. Only retirees and active members shall vote. No campaign literature on behalf of any candidates will be delivered to voting members by the Retirement Board or staff.
- September 9, 2015
Each member of or retired from Gloucester Retirement has the right to vote.
Applicability:
If at any time all or any portion of these supplemental regulations, or the application thereof, are determined to be in violation of Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 32, or of the rules and regulations promulgated by the Public Employee Retirement Administration Commission, then such Supplemental Regulation, or application thereof, shall be deemed null and void.
- December 9, 2019
Creditable Service:
In the case of a school employee whose position does not require him or her to work while the schools are closed from approximately June to September, said employee shall receive service credit for the summer months of July and August provided said employee returns to that position or another position in the school, eligible for continuing membership with the Gloucester Retirement System. If membership is with MTRS in September, creditable service will cease last day worked in June.
