Lehighton Borough, being a member municipality
of the Pennsylvania Municipal Retirement System, hereby elects to
change its member benefits in that system as authorized by the Pennsylvania
Municipal Retirement Law, as amended,[1] and does hereby agree to be bound by all requirements
and provisions of said Article and the Law,[2] as the case may be, and to assume all obligations, financial
and otherwise, placed upon member municipalities by said amendment,
as the case may be. All references hereafter shall be based on benefits
negotiated between the Board and the municipality under the provisions
of Article IV.
Membership in the Pennsylvania Municipal Retirement
System shall be mandatory for all permanent municipal employees of
the Borough. Membership for elected officials and employees hired
on a temporary or seasonal basis is prohibited as is membership for
individuals paid only on a fee basis.
Credit for prior service for original members
is granted for each year or partial year thereof that the member was
employed by the Borough from original date of hire or the expiration
of the member's probationary period if one so existed. Benefits provided
to members in the agreement dated August 26, 1996, shall accrue based
on all credited service granted and earned in accordance with this
section.
Payment for any obligation established by the
adoption of this article and the agreement between the system and
Lehighton Borough shall be made by the Borough in accordance with
the Pennsylvania Municipal Retirement Law and Act 205 of 1984, the
Municipal Pension Plan Funding Standard and Recovery Act.
As part of this article, the Borough agrees
that the system shall provide the benefits set forth in the agreement
between the Board and Lehighton Borough, dated August 26, 1996.[1] The passage and adoption of this article by Lehighton
Borough is an official acceptance of said agreement and the financial
obligations resulting from the administration of said benefit package.
Lehighton Borough hereby assumes all liability for any unfundedness
created or which may be created due to the acceptance of the benefit
structure outlined in the above-referenced agreement.
[1]
Editor's Note: The agreement is on file in
the Borough offices.
Lehighton Borough intends this article to be
the complete authorization of the Borough plan and it shall become
effective and specifically repeal Ordinance Number 439 either immediately
or on January 1, 1997, which is the effective date of the amended
agreement dated August 26, 1996, between the Pennsylvania Municipal
Retirement System and Lehighton Borough, whichever is later.
A duly certified copy of this article and the
referenced agreement shall be filed with the Pennsylvania Municipal
Retirement System of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Membership
for the municipal employees of Lehighton Borough in the Pennsylvania
Municipal Retirement System shall be effective the first day of March
1965, with the revised plan structure reflected in the agreement dated
August 26, 1996, effective the first day of January 1997.
