Section 145.05. Term of office - election of employee members - eligibility - nomination by petition

(A) The terms of office of employee members of the public employees retirement board shall be for four years each beginning on the first day of January following election. The election of the county employee member of the board and the employee member of the board representing public library, health district, park district, conservancy district, sanitary district, township, metropolitan housing authority, union cemetery, joint hospital, and institutional commissary employees shall be held on the first Monday in October, 1945, and on the first Monday in October in each fourth year thereafter. The election of the state employee member of the board and the municipal employee member of the board shall be held on the first Monday in October, 1946, and on the first Monday in October in each fourth year thereafter. The election of the initial university-college employee member of the board shall be held on the first Monday in October, 1978, and elections for subsequent university-college employee members of the board shall be held on the first Monday in October in each fourth year thereafter.

(B) The term of office of the retirant members of the public employees retirement board shall be for four years beginning on the first day of January following the election. The election of the initial retirant member for that position on the board shall be held on the first Monday in October, 1978, and subsequent elections for this retirant position shall be held on the first Monday in October in each fourth year thereafter. The initial election for the second retirant member position shall be held at the first election that occurs later than ninety days after September 15, 2004. Subsequent elections for this retirant position shall be held each fourth year thereafter.

(C) All elections for employee members of the public employees retirement board shall be held under the direction of the board in accordance with rules adopted under section 145.058 of the Revised Code. Any member of the public employees retirement system, except a member who is receiving a disability benefit under this chapter, is eligible for election as an employee member of the board to represent the employee group that includes the member, provided that the member has been nominated by a petition that is signed by at least five hundred members of the employee group to be represented, including not less than twenty such signers from each of at least ten counties of the state, and certified in accordance with rules adopted under section 145.058 of the Revised Code. The name of any member so nominated shall be placed upon the ballot by the board as a regular candidate. Names of other eligible candidates may, at any election, be substituted for the regular candidates by writing such names upon the ballots. The candidate who receives the highest number of votes for a particular employee member position on the board shall be elected to that office on certification of the election results in accordance with rules adopted under section 145.058 of the Revised Code.

(D) All elections for the retirant members of the public employees retirement board shall be held under the direction of the board in accordance with rules adopted under section 145.058 of the Revised Code. Any former member of the public employees retirement system who is described in division (A)(4) of section 145.04 of the Revised Code is eligible for election as a retirant member of the board to represent recipients of age and service retirement, a disability benefit, or benefits paid under a PERS defined contribution plan, provided that such person has been nominated by a petition that is signed by any combination of at least two hundred fifty eligible, former members of the system and certified in accordance with rules adopted under section 145.058 of the Revised Code. To be eligible to sign the petition, a former member of the system must be a recipient of age and service retirement, a disability benefit, or benefits paid under a PERS defined contribution plan. The petition shall contain the signatures of at least ten such recipients from each of at least five counties wherein recipients of benefits from the system reside.

The name of any person nominated in this manner shall be placed upon the ballot by the board as a regular candidate. Names of other eligible candidates may, at any election for a retirant member of the board, be substituted for the regular candidates by writing the names of such persons upon the ballot. The candidate who receives the highest number of votes for any term as a retirant member of the board shall be elected to office on certification of the election results in accordance with rules adopted under section 145.058 of the Revised Code.

Amended by 129th General AssemblyFile No.148, SB 343, §1, eff. 1/7/2013.

Effective Date: 10-01-2002; 09-15-2004