CERTIFICATION OF ENROLLMENT
HOUSE BILL 1481
Chapter 77, Laws of 2023
68th Legislature
2023 Regular Session
TRIBAL PEACE OFFICERS—RETIREMENT SYSTEM PARTICIPATION
EFFECTIVE DATE: July 1, 2025
Passed by the House February 13, 2023 CERTIFICATE
Yeas 96 Nays 0
I, Bernard Dean, Chief Clerk of the
House of Representatives of the
LAURIE JINKINS State of Washington, do hereby
Speaker of the House of certify that the attached is HOUSE
Representatives BILL 1481 as passed by the House of
Representatives and the Senate on
the dates hereon set forth.
Passed by the Senate March 31, 2023
Yeas 48 Nays 0 BERNARD DEAN
Chief Clerk
DENNY HECK
President of the Senate
Approved April 13, 2023 9:54 AM FILED
April 13, 2023
Secretary of State
JAY INSLEE State of Washington
Governor of the State of Washington
 HOUSE BILL 1481
Passed Legislature - 2023 Regular Session
State of Washington 68th Legislature 2023 Regular Session
By Representatives Cortes, Stearns, Chopp, Chapman, Peterson,
Jacobsen, Ramel, Orwall, Ormsby, Reeves, Senn, Leavitt, Ortiz-Self,
Taylor, Bergquist, and Pollet
Read first time 01/20/23. Referred to Committee on Appropriations.
1 AN ACT Relating to permitting general authority peace officers
2 certificated by the criminal justice training commission and employed
3 on a full-time basis by the government of a federally recognized
4 tribe to participate in the law enforcement officers' and
5 firefighters' retirement system plan 2; amending RCW 41.26.030 and
6 41.26.450; adding new sections to chapter 41.26 RCW; and providing an
7 effective date.
8 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:
9 Sec. 1. RCW 41.26.030 and 2021 c 12 s 2 are each amended to read
10 as follows:
11 As used in this chapter, unless a different meaning is plainly
12 required by the context:
13 (1) "Accumulated contributions" means the employee's
14 contributions made by a member, including any amount paid under RCW
15 41.50.165(2), plus accrued interest credited thereon.
16 (2) "Actuarial reserve" means a method of financing a pension or
17 retirement plan wherein reserves are accumulated as the liabilities
18 for benefit payments are incurred in order that sufficient funds will
19 be available on the date of retirement of each member to pay the
20 member's future benefits during the period of retirement.
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 1 (3) "Actuarial valuation" means a mathematical determination of
2 the financial condition of a retirement plan. It includes the
3 computation of the present monetary value of benefits payable to
4 present members, and the present monetary value of future employer
5 and employee contributions, giving effect to mortality among active
6 and retired members and also to the rates of disability, retirement,
7 withdrawal from service, salary and interest earned on investments.
8 (4)(a) "Basic salary" for plan 1 members, means the basic monthly
9 rate of salary or wages, including longevity pay but not including
10 overtime earnings or special salary or wages, upon which pension or
11 retirement benefits will be computed and upon which employer
12 contributions and salary deductions will be based.
13 (b) "Basic salary" for plan 2 members, means salaries or wages
14 earned by a member during a payroll period for personal services,
15 including overtime payments, and shall include wages and salaries
16 deferred under provisions established pursuant to sections 403(b),
17 414(h), and 457 of the United States Internal Revenue Code, but shall
18 exclude lump sum payments for deferred annual sick leave, unused
19 accumulated vacation, unused accumulated annual leave, or any form of
20 severance pay. In any year in which a member serves in the
21 legislature the member shall have the option of having such member's
22 basic salary be the greater of:
23 (i) The basic salary the member would have received had such
24 member not served in the legislature; or
25 (ii) Such member's actual basic salary received for
26 nonlegislative public employment and legislative service combined.
27 Any additional contributions to the retirement system required
28 because basic salary under (b)(i) of this subsection is greater than
29 basic salary under (b)(ii) of this subsection shall be paid by the
30 member for both member and employer contributions.
31 (5)(a) "Beneficiary" for plan 1 members, means any person in
32 receipt of a retirement allowance, disability allowance, death
33 benefit, or any other benefit described herein.
34 (b) "Beneficiary" for plan 2 members, means any person in receipt
35 of a retirement allowance or other benefit provided by this chapter
36 resulting from service rendered to an employer by another person.
37 (6)(a) "Child" or "children" means an unmarried person who is
38 under the age of eighteen or mentally or physically disabled as
39 determined by the department, except a person who is disabled and in
40 the full time care of a state institution, who is:
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 1 (i) A natural born child;
2 (ii) A stepchild where that relationship was in existence prior
3 to the date benefits are payable under this chapter;
4 (iii) A posthumous child;
5 (iv) A child legally adopted or made a legal ward of a member
6 prior to the date benefits are payable under this chapter; or
7 (v) An illegitimate child legitimized prior to the date any
8 benefits are payable under this chapter.
9 (b) A person shall also be deemed to be a child up to and
10 including the age of twenty years and eleven months while attending
11 any high school, college, or vocational or other educational
12 institution accredited, licensed, or approved by the state, in which
13 it is located, including the summer vacation months and all other
14 normal and regular vacation periods at the particular educational
15 institution after which the child returns to school.
16 (7) "Department" means the department of retirement systems
17 created in chapter 41.50 RCW.
18 (8) "Director" means the director of the department.
19 (9) "Disability board" for plan 1 members means either the county
20 disability board or the city disability board established in RCW
21 41.26.110.
22 (10) "Disability leave" means the period of six months or any
23 portion thereof during which a member is on leave at an allowance
24 equal to the member's full salary prior to the commencement of
25 disability retirement. The definition contained in this subsection
26 shall apply only to plan 1 members.
27 (11) "Disability retirement" for plan 1 members, means the period
28 following termination of a member's disability leave, during which
29 the member is in receipt of a disability retirement allowance.
30 (12) "Domestic partners" means two adults who have registered as
31 domestic partners under RCW 26.60.020.
32 (13) "Employee" means any law enforcement officer or firefighter
33 as defined in subsections (17) and (19) of this section.
34 (14)(a) "Employer" for plan 1 members, means the legislative
35 authority of any city, town, county, district, or regional fire
36 protection service authority or the elected officials of any
37 municipal corporation that employs any law enforcement officer and/or
38 firefighter, any authorized association of such municipalities, and,
39 except for the purposes of RCW 41.26.150, any labor guild,
40 association, or organization, which represents the firefighters or
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 1 law enforcement officers of at least seven cities of over 20,000
2 population and the membership of each local lodge or division of
3 which is composed of at least sixty percent law enforcement officers
4 or firefighters as defined in this chapter.
5 (b) "Employer" for plan 2 members, means the following entities
6 to the extent that the entity employs any law enforcement officer
7 and/or firefighter:
8 (i) The legislative authority of any city, town, county,
9 district, public corporation, or regional fire protection service
10 authority established under RCW 35.21.730 to provide emergency
11 medical services as defined in RCW 18.73.030;
12 (ii) The elected officials of any municipal corporation;
13 (iii) The governing body of any other general authority law
14 enforcement agency;
15 (iv) A four-year institution of higher education having a fully
16 operational fire department as of January 1, 1996; or
17 (v) The department of social and health services or the
18 department of corrections when employing firefighters serving at a
19 prison or civil commitment center on an island.
20 (c) Except as otherwise specifically provided in this chapter,
21 "employer" does not include a government contractor. For purposes of
22 this subsection, a "government contractor" is any entity, including a
23 partnership, limited liability company, for-profit or nonprofit
24 corporation, or person, that provides services pursuant to a contract
25 with an "employer." The determination whether an employer-employee
26 relationship has been established is not based on the relationship
27 between a government contractor and an "employer," but is based
28 solely on the relationship between a government contractor's employee
29 and an "employer" under this chapter.
30 (15)(a) "Final average salary" for plan 1 members, means (i) for
31 a member holding the same position or rank for a minimum of twelve
32 months preceding the date of retirement, the basic salary attached to
33 such same position or rank at time of retirement; (ii) for any other
34 member, including a civil service member who has not served a minimum
35 of twelve months in the same position or rank preceding the date of
36 retirement, the average of the greatest basic salaries payable to
37 such member during any consecutive twenty-four month period within
38 such member's last ten years of service for which service credit is
39 allowed, computed by dividing the total basic salaries payable to
40 such member during the selected twenty-four month period by twenty-
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 1 four; (iii) in the case of disability of any member, the basic salary
2 payable to such member at the time of disability retirement; (iv) in
3 the case of a member who hereafter vests pursuant to RCW 41.26.090,
4 the basic salary payable to such member at the time of vesting.
5 (b) "Final average salary" for plan 2 members, means the monthly
6 average of the member's basic salary for the highest consecutive
7 sixty service credit months of service prior to such member's
8 retirement, termination, or death. Periods constituting authorized
9 unpaid leaves of absence may not be used in the calculation of final
10 average salary.
11 (c) In calculating final average salary under (a) or (b) of this
12 subsection, the department of retirement systems shall include:
13 (i) Any compensation forgone by a member employed by a state
14 agency or institution during the 2009-2011 fiscal biennium as a
15 result of reduced work hours, mandatory or voluntary leave without
16 pay, temporary reduction in pay implemented prior to December 11,
17 2010, or temporary layoffs if the reduced compensation is an integral
18 part of the employer's expenditure reduction efforts, as certified by
19 the employer;
20 (ii) Any compensation forgone by a member employed by the state
21 or a local government employer during the 2011-2013 fiscal biennium
22 as a result of reduced work hours, mandatory leave without pay,
23 temporary layoffs, or reductions to current pay if the reduced
24 compensation is an integral part of the employer's expenditure
25 reduction efforts, as certified by the employer. Reductions to
26 current pay shall not include elimination of previously agreed upon
27 future salary increases; and
28 (iii) Any compensation forgone by a member employed by the state
29 or a local government employer during the 2019-2021 and 2021-2023
30 fiscal biennia as a result of reduced work hours, mandatory leave
31 without pay, temporary layoffs, furloughs, reductions to current pay,
32 or other similar measures resulting from the COVID-19 budgetary
33 crisis, if the reduced compensation is an integral part of the
34 employer's expenditure reduction efforts, as certified by the
35 employer. Reductions to current pay shall not include elimination of
36 previously agreed upon future salary increases.
37 (16) "Fire department" includes a fire station operated by the
38 department of social and health services or the department of
39 corrections when employing firefighters serving a prison or civil
40 commitment center on an island.
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 1 (17) "Firefighter" means:
2 (a) Any person who is serving on a full time, fully compensated
3 basis as a member of a fire department of an employer and who is
4 serving in a position which requires passing a civil service
5 examination for firefighter, and who is actively employed as such;
6 (b) Anyone who is actively employed as a full time firefighter
7 where the fire department does not have a civil service examination;
8 (c) Supervisory firefighter personnel;
9 (d) Any full time executive secretary of an association of fire
10 protection districts authorized under RCW 52.12.031. The provisions
11 of this subsection (17)(d) shall not apply to plan 2 members;
12 (e) The executive secretary of a labor guild, association or
13 organization (which is an employer under subsection (14) of this
14 section), if such individual has five years previous membership in a
15 retirement system established in chapter 41.16 or 41.18 RCW. The
16 provisions of this subsection (17)(e) shall not apply to plan 2
17 members;
18 (f) Any person who is serving on a full time, fully compensated
19 basis for an employer, as a fire dispatcher, in a department in
20 which, on March 1, 1970, a dispatcher was required to have passed a
21 civil service examination for firefighter;
22 (g) Any person who on March 1, 1970, was employed on a full time,
23 fully compensated basis by an employer, and who on May 21, 1971, was
24 making retirement contributions under the provisions of chapter 41.16
25 or 41.18 RCW; and
26 (h) Any person who is employed on a full-time, fully compensated
27 basis by an employer as an emergency medical technician that meets
28 the requirements of RCW 18.71.200 or 18.73.030(((12))) (13), and
29 whose duties include providing emergency medical services as defined
30 in RCW 18.73.030.
31 (18) "General authority law enforcement agency" means any agency,
32 department, or division of a municipal corporation, political
33 subdivision, or other unit of local government of this state, the
34 government of a federally recognized tribe, and any agency,
35 department, or division of state government, having as its primary
36 function the detection and apprehension of persons committing
37 infractions or violating the traffic or criminal laws in general, but
38 not including the Washington state patrol. Such an agency,
39 department, or division is distinguished from a limited authority law
40 enforcement agency having as one of its functions the apprehension or
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 1 detection of persons committing infractions or violating the traffic
2 or criminal laws relating to limited subject areas, including but not
3 limited to, the state departments of natural resources and social and
4 health services, the state gambling commission, the state lottery
5 commission, the state parks and recreation commission, the state
6 utilities and transportation commission, the state liquor and
7 cannabis board, and the state department of corrections. A general
8 authority law enforcement agency under this chapter does not include
9 a government contractor.
10 (19) "Law enforcement officer" beginning January 1, 1994, means
11 any person who is commissioned and employed by an employer on a full
12 time, fully compensated basis to enforce the criminal laws of the
13 state of Washington generally, with the following qualifications:
14 (a) No person who is serving in a position that is basically
15 clerical or secretarial in nature, and who is not commissioned shall
16 be considered a law enforcement officer;
17 (b) Only those deputy sheriffs, including those serving under a
18 different title pursuant to county charter, who have successfully
19 completed a civil service examination for deputy sheriff or the
20 equivalent position, where a different title is used, and those
21 persons serving in unclassified positions authorized by RCW 41.14.07