Author: Anikka Abbott

At its December 16, 2025 meeting, the Board of Supervisors approved revisions to the Bylaws and Regulations (Bylaws) that had previously been approved by VCERA’s Board of Retirement at its July 28, 2025 meeting, as well as revisions to the Tax Compliance Regulations (Tax Regulations) that had previously been approved by VCERA’s Board of Retirement at its October 27, 2025 meeting.

The Bylaws of the Board of Retirement address a variety of administrative and operational matters. They were last revised in September 2019.

The approved changes to the Bylaws include:

• Updated Annual Calendar of Meetings – clarified meeting schedule to better align with current practice, provide flexibility, and include committees
• Clarified Employees Included in Membership – restructured paragraph to clarify that all employees (both safety and non-safety) who are scheduled to work 64 hours or more biweekly become members upon appointment
• Removed Disability Hearing Procedures (DHPs) Attachment – kept sentence that states the Board of Retirement “shall promulgate disability hearing procedures to ensure fair and efficient proceedings regarding applications for disability retirement”; removed the attachment of the DHPs from the Bylaws

The Board adopted several recommended updates to VCERA’s Tax Regulations to conform with recent changes in federal tax law, as well as conform to current administrative practices. The updates include changes required by the Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement (SECURE) Act of 2019 and the SECURE 2.0 Act of 2022 (the SECURE Acts), and published relevant IRS guidance, as well as a few formatting enhancements. They were last revised in January 2016.

The affected Tax Regulations include these Internal Revenue Code (IRC) sections and changes:

• IRC Section 401(a) Distribution Restrictions for Return to Work and Separation from Service – updated with minor formatting enhancements and rewording of titles for clarity (similar changes were made to all of the regulations in this list)
• IRC Section 401(a) Normal Retirement Age – updated to align VCERA’s normal retirement age definition with the applicable provisions in the CERL, in compliance with the new safe harbor provisions and guidance issued by the IRS. (Note: This does not result in any changes to member retirement eligibility.)
• IRC Section 401(a)(9) Required Minimum Distributions – updated to reflect changes under the SECURE Acts* and updated Treasury Regulations, including those related to the required beginning date for commencing payments depending on the participant’s birthdate
• IRC Section 401(a)(17) Compensation Limit – updated to reflect the limit in effect at the time of approval
• IRC Sections 401(a)(31) and 402(c) Rollovers – updated to simplify and streamline the definition of “spouse” to conform to applicable laws regarding recognition of same sex marriages
• IRC Section 415 Annual Benefit and Additions Limits – updated to reflect the limit in effect at the time of approval, and to simplify and streamline the definition of “spouse” to conform to applicable laws regarding recognition of same sex marriages

View the final updated documents and all information related to Board policies and procedures on our Board Governance webpage.

See redline versions below for all changes made:

• VCERA Bylaws and Regulations – redline
• Tax Regulations Package – redline

*The SECURE 2.0 Act passed in December 2022. Among other changes, it increased the Required Minimum Distribution Age (RMD) to age 73 effective in 2023, and to age 75 in 2034. This change in RMD age thresholds will allow members to further delay their retirement date until they reach a later age.

At its December 16, 2025 meeting, the Board voted to re-elect Aaron Grass, Elected Safety Member, as its Chair. Trustee Grass joined the Board in 2021 and has served as Chair since 2024.

The Board also elected Donald Brodt, Appointed Public Member, as Vice-Chair. Trustee Brodt joined the Board in 2023, and this will be his first term as Vice-Chair.

The Chair and Vice-Chair positions are nominated and elected annually by the Board of Retirement from its own members. The positions are governed by their respective charters. To learn more about VCERA’s Board of Retirement members, visit our Board Members page.

At the Board of Retirement meeting held on July 28, 2025, the Board voted to approve amendments to the Disability Retirement Process and Disability Retirement Hearing Rules. The most significant changes included:

• Adding an Introduction section to the Disability Retirement Hearing Rules that provides historical background of the New Model process changes and helps explain references to the 1999 Disability Hearing Procedures (DHPs)
• Removing terminology of “Old Model” vs. “New Model” from both documents
• Adding policy review and history information to both documents
• Adding clarification to Step #10 in the Disability Retirement Process, including the addition of language to explain that the fast-track process is only available if there is no dispute in evidence regarding service connection in service-connected disability retirement applications, and removing language describing employer removal requests during the 21 days that was duplicative of Steps 19 to 22
• Modifying Step #19 in the Disability Retirement Process by extending the period allotted for employer and applicant review of the preliminary recommendation from 21 calendar days to 21 business days, with the opportunity to request an extension to 30 business days with good cause (to which any parties may submit objection within 2 business days)
• Adding clarification to existing rules in the Disability Retirement Hearing Rules regarding the Hearing Officer’s jurisdiction, including:
  • the adjustment of language in Rule #5 that an extended hearing commencement deadline would be per Rule #4 (and anything beyond that would end the Hearing Officer’s jurisdiction),
  • the addition of language in Rule #8 to expressly include post-hearing and remand disputes, and
  • the addition of language in Rule #17 to not include jurisdictional limits set in Rules #4 and #5 (number of days by which a hearing must commence) within the intervals that the Hearing Officer may shorten or lengthen
• Adding new Rule #18 to the Disability Retirement Hearing Rules to clarify the procedures (that VCERA already follows by law) regarding release of psychiatric and/or psychological records

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View the final updated documents and all information related to VCERA’s disability retirement policies and procedures on our Disability Retirement webpage.

VCERA has a new “New Employee Orientation” video! While the video is intended to give new members an overview of their VCERA benefits, it’s also a useful refresher for members at any step of their career journey. The video includes information on benefit tiers, service credit purchases, reciprocity, retirement eligibility, and more.

You can find the new video on our New Employee Orientation webpage.

VCERA is funded by member (employee) contributions, employer contributions, and investment earnings. Together, these funding sources enable VCERA to offer its members retirement benefits that last a lifetime.

Employee and employer retirement contribution rates are adjusted annually based on recommendations from VCERA’s Actuarial Valuation by Segal. We have updated our website to reflect the new retirement contribution rates for the fiscal year beginning on July 1, 2025. Please find the updated rates on our Contribution Rates webpage.

You can find more information about contributions on our website.

The 2025 cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) for eligible retirees, beneficiaries, and other payees with a retirement date of April 1, 2025 or earlier will be reflected in retirement benefit payments on April 30, 2025:

• Safety retirees and General Tier 1* retirees: 3.0%

The COLA awarded to Safety retirees and General Tier 1 (Legacy) retirees is based on the year-over-year change (as of December) in the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Consumer Price Index (CPI) for the Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim region. If the CPI change, after being rounded to the nearest half percent, is more than the 3.0% COLA maximum, the excess will be “banked” and applied to a COLA in a future year when the annual CPI change is less than 3.0%. The regional CPI change from December 2023 to December 2024 was 3.5% after rounding. The Board of Retirement approved the 3.0% COLA at its meeting on February 24, 2025.

• General Tier 2 and Tier 8* retirees (eligible SEIU and CNA service**): 2.0%

The COLA awarded to eligible General Tier 2 (Legacy) and Tier 8 (PEPRA) retirees represented by SEIU or CNA is 2.0%. This percentage is not subject to CPI changes. The 2.0% General Tier 2 and Tier 8 COLA increases are automatic under the terms of the Board of Retirement Regulation and applicable labor agreements, and require no additional Board approval. For SEIU retirees, this applies to any eligible service rendered on or after March 16, 2003 (for retirements on or after March 13, 2005). For CNA retirees, this applies to any eligible service rendered on or after June 25, 2023.

If you would like to learn more about VCERA’s annual COLAs, click here or contact VCERA.

*For more information about benefit tiers, click here.
**SEIU is the Service Employees International Union. CNA is the California Nurses Association.

On January 5, 2025, former President Biden signed the Social Security Fairness Act into law, after it was passed by the Senate in December and House in November.

The legislation eliminates the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) and Government Pension Offset (GPO.) It will stop the reduction of Social Security benefits for certain retirees who receive public pensions. Additionally, a provision that reduced social security benefits for surviving spouses and family of pensioners was also eliminated.

The Social Security Administration (SSA) will recalculate benefits for those affected by the WEP and GPO. Payments will be retroactive to December 2023.

This law does not impact or change any members’ VCERA retirement benefits. Only Social Security (SS) benefits are impacted, and only people who receive a pension based on work not covered by Social Security may see changes to their SS benefits. While most VCERA members participate in Social Security and are therefore not affected by the new law, there are several bargaining groups, such as Law Enforcement and Fire Suppression (Safety members), that are not subject to Social Security.

If you are an affected retiree, the SSA will contact you, or you can visit www.ssa.gov for more information.