VCERA is pleased to open a recruitment for a Retirement Accountant. This position will be responsible for fiscal monitoring, accounting control, budget compilation and projection, financial statement development, and other accounting functions for VCERA. To learn more about the job opening and to apply, click on the link below.
An election for a General Member Representative and a special election for an Alternate Safety Member Representative on the VCERA Board of Retirement will be held on February 3, 2025.
Any active General member is eligible to run for the General Member Representative office. The elected member will serve a 3-year term from January 1, 2025 until December 31, 2027.
Only Safety members in the Fire Suppression group, including Airport Operations Officers and Harbor Patrol Officers, are eligible for the Alternate Safety Member office. The elected member will serve from the date of certification of election results until December 31, 2026.
Nomination documents can be obtained by appointment starting on December 2, 2024, in the County Elections Office or by emailing campaign.finance@ventura.org. To make an appointment, visit www.venturavote.org. Completed nomination packets must be returned to the Elections Office by December 9, 2024, at 5 p.m.
Serving on the VCERA Board of Retirement offers a unique opportunity to shape the future of retirement security for thousands of dedicated public employees in Ventura County. As a Board member, you will play an important role in reviewing VCERA’s investments, policies, and long-term sustainability, helping to provide essential lifetime benefits to those who have served our community.
The Alameda Decision of 2020 concluded that all amendments to the definition of compensation earnable, enacted because of the Public Employees’ Pension Reform Act of 2013 (PEPRA), were constitutional. The Court also ruled that boards may not include the value of benefits paid “in-kind,” such as the portion of flex credit applied to healthcare benefits. To comply with the decision, the Board of Retirement adopted the Flexible Benefits Correction Resolution on April 17, 2023, excluding a portion of the Flexible Credit Allowance from the compensation earnable calculation for legacy retirement plan members. This resulted in reduced pension benefits for those retiring on or after July 30, 2020. Eligible members will receive a refund of member contributions on non-cashable flex credit, plus interest (net of overpaid benefits plus interest for retirees.) The corresponding employer contributions remain with the VCERA fund as a credit toward future employer contributions. With this savings, on June 27, 2023, the Ventura County Board of Supervisors approved the creation of the Legacy Retiree Healthcare Premium Subsidy and Reimbursement Plan (“HRA plan”) to mitigate some of the loss in retirement benefits to members.
Additionally, on June 27, 2023, the Board of Supervisors approved an Amendment to the Memorandum of Agreement between the Ventura County Fire Protection District and the Ventura County Professional Firefighters’ Association (VCPFA). This amendment enables the monthly funding of a Legacy Retiree Healthcare Contribution on behalf of eligible retirees, directed into the VCPFA-administered medical trust to cover health-related expenses for qualified retirees.
The County HRA Plan will provide eligible retirees a healthcare reimbursement account, funded by employer contributions in amounts based on individual bargaining agreements, with potential annual increases of up to 3%. The HRA can be used for eligible out-of-pocket medical, dental, and vision expenses for eligible retirees and their dependents.
While VCERA does not administer retiree health benefits or the HRA plan, and thus cannot answer questions about such plans, you can learn more by calling the Ventura County HRA Administrator at (805) 654-5033, or by visiting the HRA Benefit web page.
VCERA will withhold federal and state (California only) income taxes from your monthly retirement benefit according to the preferences you indicated on the Federal and California State Tax Withholding Form. You can update your preferences at any time by submitting a new form. A qualified tax advisor can assist you in determining the appropriate withholding amounts.
At the end of each January, VCERA will mail you a Form 1099-R showing the total retirement benefits paid to you in the preceding calendar year. The taxable portion of the distributions will be calculated using the Internal Revenue Service’s Special Rule. Under this Rule, you have a certain period of time (based on your age or the combined ages of you and your spouse) to recover after-tax contributions.
A Form 1099-R also will be issued for any refunds of taxable retirement contributions. Please keep your mailing address current with VCERA so that you receive important tax documents and other account information.
Please direct all questions regarding the taxability of your VCERA benefit to a qualified tax advisor.
On May 20, 2024, the Board of Retirement voted to adopt a 7.9% interest rate on underpaid benefits stemming from Alameda-related corrections. Members who retired on or after July 30, 2020 who had certain estimated exclusions applied at the time of their initial retirement calculation may be affected.
After the Alameda court decision in July 2020, VCERA staff used the information available to recalculate benefits and began excluding certain items from Final Average Compensation (FAC) calculations to comply with the decision. These exclusions that occurred early in the process after July 2020 were best estimates at that time. Since then, more precise numbers have been calculated by the employers and by VCERA, and some of these exclusions have now been reversed. Such exclusions included 1) the removal of all flex credits for VRSD members, which was later determined to be improper because VRSD had reported only the cashable amount of flex credits, and 2) the removal of situational pay codes in full where it was later determined that only a portion of hours reported with the pay code should be removed. As a result of reversing these exclusions, VCERA has, in some cases, identified a new higher FAC period and has recalculated benefits. The recalculations resulted in underpaid benefits owed to the affected retired members. These missed benefit payments will be treated as back-pay.
Following the board’s May 2024 approval, an interest rate of 7.9% will be applied to these back-payments. This is consistent with a March 2023 board decision to apply the same interest rate to other Alameda corrections. The 7.9% interest rate was selected based on average long-term earnings, and also mirrored the quarterly performance report as of December 31, 2022.
VCERA is pleased to open a recruitment for a Retirement Accounting Manager. This position will assist the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) in planning, organizing, and directing payroll and fiscal activities at VCERA. To learn more about the job opening and to apply, click on the link below.
In the Alameda Decision, issued on 7/30/2020, the California Supreme Court ruled that retirement boards, such as VCERA’s, could not include in Legacy members’ compensation earnable any pay items that were excluded by law, including “in-kind” benefits. “Flex credit” allowances provided to employees each pay period and applied to healthcare benefits are “in-kind” benefits that must be excluded. Rather than implement that exclusion immediately, the VCERA Board agreed to delay a decision on flex credit until April 2023 at the request of the County and labor organizations, allowing time to negotiate alternative benefits.
In May 2023, after the Board adopted a Resolution to implement the Alameda Decision’s ruling as to flex credit, VCERA began limiting flex credit in Legacy members’ retirement earnings to the “maximum cashable amount,” which was the flat or employee-only rate minus the lesser of the opt-out fee or lowest-cost employer-sponsored healthcare plan. This was the formula under the County’s benefit structure in place at that time, referred to as the “old benefit structure.” After the County changed the program’s structure in June 2023, referred to as the “new benefit structure,” the “maximum cashable amount” for most bargaining units was equal to the opt-out allowance.
The following two sample paychecks illustrate the new benefit structure with regard to opt-out allowances and flex credit allowances for Legacy members.
Example #1: New Benefit Structure with Opt-Out Allowance
“Opt Out Allowance” is the flat amount ($147.00) payable to this employee for not electing a County-provided health plan. [Under the new benefit structure, this employee no longer receives the old “Flex Credit FT $497” amount and no longer pays the “Opt Out” fee.]
“Retirement Earnings Final” is the total pensionable retirement earnings in this pay period. For Legacy members, “Retirement Earnings Final” is what is included as “compensation earnable.” For this Legacy member, it is the sum of all pay items listed under “Earnings.”
“Retirement Cnty Reg Fund” is the amount the County reported paying toward this employee’s future retirement benefit (“normal cost”). The County also includes in this amount a portion of the amortized unfunded liability (UAAL).
“Retirement Cnty COL Fund” is the amount the County reported paying toward this employee’s future cost-of-living adjustments (COLA) (“normal cost”). The County also includes in this amount a portion of the UAAL.
Note: Under the new benefit structure, employees receive either the “Flex Credit” allowance or the “Opt Out Allowance.” There is no longer an opt-out fee. The maximum cashable amount is equal to the opt-out allowance and is the same for all members of the same bargaining unit. (Click here to see charts of maximum cashable amounts by union.)
Note: Effective 6/25/2023, the County began reporting the new benefit structure’s maximum cashable amount in “Retirement Earnings Final” for Legacy members. The pensionable amount varies by bargaining unit. For example, the maximum cashable amount is $229.94 per pay period for VCDSA-represented employees; it is $279.94 per pay period for CNA-represented employees.
Example #2: New Benefit Structure with Flex Credit Allowance
“Flex Credit” is the flex credit allowance ($147.00) for this employee in this bargaining unit.
“Retirement Earnings Final” is the total pensionable retirement earnings in this pay period. For this Legacy member, it is the sum of all pay items listed under “Earnings,” except the “Flex Credit Additional” amount.
Note: The sum of “Flex Credit” and “Flex Credit Additional” amounts equals the flex credit amount negotiated by each bargaining unit. Under the new benefit structure, the “Flex Credit” amount is pensionable, but the “Flex Credit Additional” amount is not pensionable.
Other Information
PEPRA members do not have flex credit included in their retirement earnings because PEPRA excludes from “pensionable compensation” any employer-provided allowance. Also, the “Retirement Earnings Final” amounts on Legacy members’ paychecks prior to 6/25/2023 were overstated due to the inclusion of the full flex credit.
