HB 0749

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

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