[HISTORY: Adopted by the Board of Supervisors
of the Township of Upper Hanover as indicated in article histories.
Amendments noted where applicable.]
[Adopted 7-21-1977 by Ord. No. 77-5]
A.
The following persons shall be entitled to receive
pension or retirement benefits as hereinafter provided:
(1)
Each police officer employed by this municipality
on a full-time basis who shall have 20 years of continuous service
with this municipality and who shall have attained 65 years of age
and who shall have received an honorable discharge.
B.
"Continuous service" shall mean full-time employment
with this municipality, including periods of absence which are approved
by the governing body of this municipality or which arise by operation
of law.
C.
Any member of the police force who has been a regularly
appointed employee of this municipality for a period of at least six
months and who thereafter shall enter into the military service of
the United States shall have credited to his employment record for
pension or retirement benefits all of the time spent by him in such
military service, if such person returns or has heretofore returned
to his employment within six months after his separation from the
service.
D.
Any participant retiring hereunder shall be subject
to serve, from time to time, as a police reserve in cases of riot,
tumult or preservation of the public peace until unfitted for such
service, whereupon he may be finally discharged from reserve service
by reason of age or disability.
A.
The amount of pension or retirement benefit payable
to any police officer under this program shall be a sum equal to 1/2
of the monthly average salary of the participant during the last 60
months of employment. Such retirement benefits shall be payable monthly
during the balance of a participant's life following actual retirement,
and the benefits for any month shall be computed as the sum of: (i)
any pension benefits from pension plans heretofore established by
a private organization or association for the members of the police
force, but only to the extent that the commonwealth or any of its
municipalities shall have contributed to such pension plan monies
raised by taxation; (ii) 50% of the primary benefits under federal
social security laws for which the participant may be eligible because
of age; and (iii) benefits from the pension fund established hereunder
to the extent necessary to bring the total benefits in any month up
to 1/2 of the aforesaid monthly average salary. Pension payments made
under the provisions of this article shall not be a charge on any
other fund in the treasury of the municipality or under its control
save the police pension fund.
B.
The governing body of this municipality hereby establishes
and agrees to pay length-of-service increments equal to 2% of the
monthly average salary of the participant during the last 60 months
of employment per month for each completed year of service in excess
of 20 years; however, in no event will the total of all such monthly
length-of-service increments exceed $100. Such length-of-service increments
will be paid in addition to other monthly pension or retirement allowances.
A.
No participant contributions are required, all necessary
annual contributions are the obligation of the municipality and shall
be paid to the pension fund by annual appropriations.
B.
Any payments made by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
to the municipality for police pension purposes shall be used as follows:
The municipality shall be the owner of all monies
or property paid into the fund or annuities or policies purchased
from insurance companies hereunder and the owner of any insurance
and retirement income contracts acquired hereunder, and no participant
prior to retirement shall have any right or interest in any portion
of said monies or property; provided, however, that each participant
shall be entitled to designate a beneficiary. In the event of termination
or discontinuance of his employment with the municipality because
of death, the participant's designated beneficiary or, in the absence
thereof, his estate shall receive a death benefit equal to 2 1/2
times annual salary, subject to a maximum of $35,000.
A.
The police pension fund shall be under the direction
of the governing body of the municipality or such committee or persons
as the governing body of the municipality may from time to time designate
by resolution, who shall act as trustees of the pension fund, and
such trustees shall have full responsibility for administration of
the program established hereunder and shall hold, invest, reinvest
and distribute all funds or other property received pursuant hereto
in trust for the purposes of this article. The trustees may receive,
at any time and from time to time, gifts, grants, devises or bequests
to the pension fund of any money or property, real, personal or mixed,
to be held by them in trust for the benefit of this fund and in accordance
with the provisions hereof. The trustees shall be subject to such
rules and regulations as may from time to time be adopted by the governing
body of this municipality by ordinance or resolution.
B.
The trustees shall have full power and authority by
a majority action of the members, either directly or through their
designated representatives, to do all acts; execute, acknowledge and
deliver all instruments; and to exercise for the sole benefit of the
participants hereunder any and all powers and discretions necessary
to implement and effectuate the purposes of this article including,
for purposes of illustration but not limited to, any and all of the
following:
(1)
To hold, invest and reinvest all funds received pursuant
to this article in such legal investments as may be authorized as
legal investments under the laws of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania;
(2)
Upon prior written approval by the Township Supervisors,
to enter into contracts or deposit agreements on behalf of this municipality
with one or more insurance companies, in order to provide the pension
and other benefits herein set forth, and to pay the premiums and deposits
required by the purchase of said contracts;
(3)
To retain or purchase as an investment any form of
annuity or contracts of similar nature, and to exercise with respect
thereto any right or incident of ownership;
(4)
To retain any property which may at any time become
an asset of the fund, as long as said trustees may deem it advisable;
and
(5)
To make distribution of the monies in the fund in
accordance with the terms of this article.
A.
The pension payments herein provided for shall not
be subject to attachment, execution, levy, garnishment or other legal
process, and shall be payable only to the participant or his designated
beneficiary. No participant or his beneficiary shall have any right
to alienate, encumber or assign any assets of the fund held by the
trustees on his behalf or any of the benefits or payments or proceeds
of any contract or agreement purchased or acquired by the municipality
hereunder.
B.
Any contract or agreement purchased or acquired pursuant
to this article upon the life of such participant shall contain a
provision, in substance, that, to the extent permitted by law, none
of the benefits or payments or proceeds of such contract or agreement
shall be subject to any legal process by any creditor of such participant
or beneficiary of such participant.
All contracts, agreements or funds held by the
municipality for the purpose of providing pensions, annuities or retirement
income or any of them, on any police officer who shall be a participant
in the program herein established, shall be and hereby are transferred
and assigned to the fund herein created. After such transfer, the
police pension fund shall assume the liability, if any, of continuing
the payment of pensions to members of the police force retired prior
to such transfer in accordance with the laws and regulations under
which such members were retired.
The expense of administering this pension program,
including compensation of an actuary, any custodian of the fund and
any other charges or expenses related thereto, exclusive of the payment
of pensions, shall be paid by the municipality by appropriations made
by the governing body of the municipality.
