HB 0749

CS

CHAMBER ACTION

1	The Committee on Local Government & Veterans' Affairs recommends
2	the following:
3
4	Committee Substitute
5	Remove the entire bill and insert:
6	A bill to be entitled
7	An act relating to the City of Jacksonville, Duval County;
8	amending chapter 92-341, Laws of Florida, as amended;
9	amending the Charter of the City of Jacksonville;
10	establishing a Correctional Officers Pension Fund within
11	the City of Jacksonville's 1937 General Employee's Pension
12	Fund and an additional funding source for pension benefits
13	for correctional officers of the Office of the Sheriff;
14	providing an effective date.
15
16	WHEREAS, the City of Jacksonville, Office of the Sheriff,
17	employs approximately 670 correctional officers whose primary
18	responsibility is the lawful detainment, supervision,
19	protection, custody and control, and investigation of all
20	inmates within the precincts of the Duval County jails and
21	prisons, and
22	WHEREAS, the correctional officers of the City of
23	Jacksonville, Office of the Sheriff, provide valuable services
24	to the city by administering drug treatment, work release, and
25	other programs for persons sentenced through the criminal
26	justice system, and
27	WHEREAS, the correctional officers of the City of
28	Jacksonville, Office of the Sheriff, perform duties which
29	present higher risk of injury and exposure to communicable
30	diseases such as AIDS, tuberculosis, and hepatitis than do other
31	employees covered under the 1937 Pension Fund for the Employees
32	of the City of Jacksonville, and
33	WHEREAS, the correctional officers of the City of
34	Jacksonville, Office of the Sheriff, are the only correctional
35	officers in the counties or the State of Florida not allowed the
36	benefits extended through a special risk pension trust, and
37	WHEREAS, current pension benefits are inadequate to provide
38	pension benefits and protection for the correctional officers of
39	the City of Jacksonville, Office of the Sheriff, commensurate
40	with the pension benefits provided to other local law
41	enforcement or firesafety employees, as well as employees of
42	other like agencies throughout the state, and
43	WHEREAS, the proceeds of the additional funding from the
44	administrative surcharge provided for in this act shall be
45	applied to the costs of maintaining the pretrial and posttrial
46	detention facilities of the City of Jacksonville, which costs
47	include the expense of maintaining a pension for corrections
48	officers necessary to recruit and maintain an adequate
49	workforce, and
50	WHEREAS, the administrative surcharge provided for in this
51	act bears a direct and reasonable relationship to the cost of
52	the administration of the Duval County corrections system, which
53	includes the salaries and benefits of correctional officers who
54	are involved directly in the booking, supervision, protection,
55	custody and control, and investigation of detainees, NOW,
56	THEREFORE,
57
58	Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Florida:
59
60	Section 1.  Section 16.06 of chapter 92-341, Laws of
61	Florida, as amended, is created to read:
62	ARTICLE 16.  RETIREMENT AND PENSION BENEFITS
63	Section 16.06.  Funding and enhanced pension benefits for
64	correctional officers.--
65	(1)  There is hereby created within the 1937 General
66	Employees Pension Fund of the City of Jacksonville a separate
67	Correctional Officers Pension Fund for all correctional officers
68	employed by the City of Jacksonville on the effective date of
69	this act and for those to be hired in the future. All assets and
70	accrued benefits, employee contributions, and employer
71	contributions, including interest, for all affected correctional
72	officers in the 1937 Pension Fund for the Employees of the City
73	of Jacksonville shall be transferred to the Correctional
74	Officers Pension Fund, which shall be administered separately by
75	the Board of Pension Trustees administering the 1937 General
76	Employees Pension Fund, except that a separate three-member
77	Correctional Officers Advisory Committee shall be established to
78	perform the same functions for this fund as are performed by the
79	General Employees Pension Advisory Committee. The chair of the
80	Correctional Officers Advisory Committee shall serve on the
81	Board of Pension Trustees for all matters directly related to
82	the Correctional Officers Pension Fund in lieu of the chair of
83	the General Employees Advisory Committee. The City Council of
84	the City of Jacksonville shall be responsible for implementing
85	this act and for establishing benefits for participants in the
86	Correctional Officers Pension Fund. The benefits for current
87	participants and future retirees of the Correctional Officers
88	Pension Fund shall be identical to those presently provided to
89	participants and retirees in the 1937 General Employees Pension
90	Fund, subject to those improvements deemed necessary by the city
91	council to address inadequacies in current benefits and funding.
92	(2)  In support of remediating the cost of housing,
93	boarding, and caring for detainees held in the City of
94	Jacksonville's pretrial and posttrial detention facilities by
95	providing separate and additional funds for the enhancement of
96	pension benefits of the correctional officers of the City of
97	Jacksonville, Office of the Sheriff, each person who is arrested
98	and booked into a consolidated City of Jacksonville corrections
99	facility shall pay an administrative surcharge of $20, which sum
100	shall be deposited into the City of Jacksonville's Correctional
101	Officers Pension Fund. Such surcharge funds shall be accounted
102	for separately and used only to supplement the pension benefits
103	for those members who are classified as correctional officers of
104	the City of Jacksonville, Office of the Sheriff, and are members
105	of said fund. The city shall provide procedures for refunds or
106	waivers of the administrative surcharge for those detainees:
107	(a)  Against whom charges are dropped or not pursued;
108	(b)  Who are acquitted of the charges;
109	(c)  Who are unable to pay due to indigency; or
110	(d)  Who demonstrate a legal basis for relief from such
111	payment.
112
113	No detainee shall be subject to continued detention, be denied
114	access to judicial process or legal counsel, or be subject to
115	penalty solely because of nonpayment of the administrative
116	surcharge.
117	Section 2.  This act shall take effect upon becoming a law.

CODING: Words stricken are deletions; words underlined are additions.