SCERS WEBSITE HANDBOOK
CALIFORNIA COUNTIES' RETIREMENT SYSTEMS

Existing Law

Under existing State law a county may provide retirement benefits to its employees in three ways. It may: (1) establish an independent system, (2) contract with the California Public Employees' Retirement System ("CalPERS"), or (3) establish a system under the County Employees’ Retirement Law of 1937 (California Government Code Section 31450 et seq), commonly referred to as the "1937 Act."

Independent Systems

Article XI, Section 1 of the State Constitution authorizes general law counties to provide for the number, compensation, tenure and appointment of employees. In addition, Article XI, Sections 4 and 6, authorizes charter counties and charter cities and counties to establish independent retirement systems if their charters so provide. San Luis Obispo County and San Francisco City and County have established such systems.

CalPERS System

In 1939 the Legislature authorized employees of counties (and other public agencies) to join CalPERS at the individual county's option. Currently 37 counties contract with CalPERS. They are Alpine, Amador, Butte, Calaveras, Colusa, Del Norte, El Dorado, Glenn, Humboldt, Inyo, Kings, Lake, Lassen, Madera, Mariposa, Modoc, Mono, Monterey, Napa, Nevada, Placer, Plumas, Riverside, San Benito, San Francisco (Limited), Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, Shasta, Sierra, Siskiyou, Solano, Sutter, Tehama, Trinity, Tuolumne, Yolo and Yuba.

The 1937 Act Systems

The Legislature initially authorized a retirement system for county employees with the enactment of the County Employees' Retirement Law of 1919. This law was replaced by the 1937 Act, and was eventually repealed in 1947.

The 1937 Act provides for retirement systems for county and district employees in those counties adopting its provisions pursuant to Section 31500. Twenty California counties operate retirement systems under the provisions of the 1937 Act. These are separate entities, separate and apart from each other and CalPERS.

The 20 counties are: Alameda, Contra Costa, Fresno, Imperial, Kern, Los Angeles, Marin, Mendocino, Merced, Orange, Sacramento, San Bernardino, San Diego, San Joaquin, San Mateo, Santa Barbara, Sonoma, Stanislaus, Tulare and Ventura. Los Angeles, in 1938, was the first county to adopt the 1937 Act provisions. Imperial was the last, establishing its system in 1951. Most of the member counties created their systems in the middle 1940's.

The 1937 Act was enacted to recognize a public obligation to county and district employees who become incapacitated by age or long service in public employment and its accompanying physical disabilities by making provision for retirement compensation and death benefits as additional elements of compensation for future services and to provide a means by which public employees who become incapacitated may be replaced by more capable employees to the betterment of the public service without prejudice and without inflicting a hardship upon the employees removed.`

The 1937 Act provides two methods by which a county may establish a 1937 Act retirement system: (1) an affirmative vote by a majority of the electors voting on the proposition at a general or special election, or (2) by a four-fifths vote of the board of supervisors. Once a county elects to come under the 1937 Act, the Act’s provisions become operative on either the following January 1, or July 1, but not sooner than 60 days after the appropriate election. A system established pursuant to the 1937 Act supersedes any previously established county retirement system.

Return to Retirement Website Handbook Table of Contents Page