PART III. EMPLOYEES' RETIREMENT SYSTEM OF THE

SEWERAGE AND WATER BOARD OF THE

CITY OF NEW ORLEANS

§3821. Creation; contributions; management; investments; board of trustees

A. The Sewerage and Water Board shall set up an actuarially sound pension fund for the payment of pensions and service benefits to its employees, which pension fund may be coordinated with and supplementary to Title II of the Federal Social Security Act*; the benefits of which Act shall be made available to employees of the Sewerage and Water Board when requirements of the federal law shall have been met. Employee contributions for coverage pursuant to the agreement entered into between the state of Louisiana and the secretary of health, education, and welfare may be withheld from employees' pay, and, in addition thereto, contributions to the retirement system, not to exceed eight percent of the salary in excess of one thousand two hundred dollars per year with respect to any employee hired subsequent to December 31, 1980, and not to exceed four percent of all salary in excess of one thousand two hundred dollars per year paid to any employee employed as of December 31, 1980, and not to exceed eight percent with respect to any amount subsequently paid to any employee in excess of the salary earned by such employee as of December 31, 1980, may be withheld for the retirement fund; however, for those employees hired on or after January 1, 1996, the first one hundred dollars per month of each employee's salary, equaling one thousand two hundred dollars per year, shall be included for purposes of contributions to this system. Members who were employed prior to January 1, 1996, shall have the option of paying such an actuarial amount to this system as may be necessary to receive credit in this system, proportionate to the credit that was not received as a result of excluding one thousand two hundred dollars per year from the member's contributions to this system. In the event the agreement with the Social Security Administration is cancelled and retirement benefits are increased, employee contributions may be increased to an amount not to exceed ten percent of the total salary. The board shall set aside and pay to the pension fund from each of its funds, however described, against which salaries of its employees are properly chargeable, in proportion to the amount of salaries chargeable to each, such amounts as may be necessary to maintain the pension fund on an actuarial basis, and also to pay out of said funds the board's proportion of contributions under the provisions of the Federal Social Security Act and hospitalization insurance for all of its employees. The board is authorized to withdraw from the presently existing pension fund a sum sufficient to pay the employees' portion of the social security contribution for the period commencing January 1, 1955 to August 1, 1956, and to pay out of its Operating-Maintenance Funds the employers' portion of the social security contributions for the same period.

B. The pension fund shall be under the jurisdiction, control, and management of the board of trustees of the retirement system and shall be used for no other purpose than to pay pensions to employees and may pay plan sponsorship fees under the rules and regulations adopted by the board of trustees of the retirement system. Plan sponsorship fees include but are not limited to fees for money management, investment services, and custodial services.

C. The board of trustees of the retirement system may make such rules and regulations as it deems proper to carry out the purposes and objects of this Part in regard to pensions to be paid to its employees, subject to the following restrictions:

(1) No salaries, fees, commissions or emoluments shall be paid out of the pension fund to anyone serving on the pension committee or in any other capacity. The executive director and the special counsel of the Sewerage and Water Board shall act in the same official capacities for the pension fund without additional compensation.

(2) All assessments, dues, contributions, or monies received from any source for use or benefit of the pension fund and all surpluses, if and when accumulated and established, shall be invested by utilizing the prudent-man rule as provided in R.S. 11:263(C). The prudent-man rule shall require each fiduciary of this retirement system and each member of the board of trustees to act collectively on behalf of this board exercising the care, skill, prudence, and diligence under the circumstances then prevailing as a prudent institutional investor of ordinary discretion and intelligence in the management of large investments entrusted to such board.

D. Notwithstanding any provision of law to the contrary, the board of trustees of the retirement system may invest no more than sixty-five percent of the pension fund portfolio in equities, and no more than twenty-five percent of the pension fund shall be invested in any single equity.

E. The board of trustees of the Employees' Retirement System of the Sewerage and Water Board of the city of New Orleans shall be composed of:

(1) The members of the Sewerage and Water Board of New Orleans as provided in R.S. 33:4071.

(2) The three duly elected employee members of the pension committee, which committee is defined and described in the rules and regulations of the retirement system.

(3) The one retiree member of the pension committee, which committee is defined and described in the rules and regulations of the retirement system.

Amended by Acts 1956, No. 551, §1; Acts 1960, No. 551, §1; Acts 1968, No. 413, §1; Acts 1973, No. 62, §1; Acts 1980, No. 627, §1, eff. July 24, 1980; Redesignated from R.S. 33:4076 by Acts 1991, No. 74, §3, eff. June 25, 1991; Acts 1993, No. 349, §1, eff. June 3, 1993; Acts 1995, No. 102, §1, eff. June 12, 1995; Acts 1995, No. 103, §1, eff. June 12, 1995; Acts 1995, No. 670, §1, eff. June 21, 1995; Acts 1995, No. 683, §1, eff. June 21, 1995; Acts 2000, 1st Ex. Sess., No. 47, §1, eff. April 17, 2000; Acts 2001, No. 773, §1; Acts 2011, No. 396, §1, eff. July 1, 2011.

*42 U.S.C.A. §401 et seq.