Montague Retirement Board Supplemental Regulations

Regulations accepted by the board and approved by PERAC

Membership:

October 11, 2022

Part time employees who work a minimum of twenty hours a week must become members of the system.  Further, a part time employee hired at less than 20 hours per week, who then works at least 20 hours per week for a minimum of 6 months, unless the unit has applied to the Board in advance and received an exemption for unusual circumstances such as filling vacancies due to military or medical leave, must become a member of the system.

March 7, 2005 

Eligibility:

1. All employees must be considered regular employees to be eligible for membership in the system. Temporary, seasonal or intermittent employees are not eligible for membership with the exception of temporary military substitutes.
   
   1A). Temporary employees are defined as those employees expected to work for fewer than 3 months.  If an employee is hired to work for fewer than 3 months, but actually works 3 months or longer, and works a regular schedule of at least 20 hours per week, they shall become a member of the system when they have worked 3 months.
2. All temporary military substitutes who are appointed for one year or more to fill a position of a member on military leave are eligible for membership upon appointment. All temporary military substitutes who are (initially) appointed for less than one year shall become a member when employed in that position for one year or more. A temporary military substitute who did not become a member upon appointment shall have the option of buying back their time worked to the original date of appointment.
3. Part-time employees who work a minimum of twenty hours a week must become members of the system.
4. Temporary employees who become permanent employees shall have the option of buying back their time worked as temporary employees with this service prorated based on the actual hours worked (see #B2).
5. …BLANK
6. In the case of an individual being appointed to fill the term of a paid elected position, the following shall apply:
   • If the individual is currently a member of the Montague Retirement System, the individual shall be credited for full-time service for the duration of the appointment.
   • If the individual is not a member of the Montague Retirement System, they shall not be eligible for membership until such time as the individual is elected to the position and selects membership in the Montague Retirement System
7. A member who takes an additional job within the Montague Retirement System shall have those wages treated as regular compensation [consistent with 840 CMR 15.03], regardless of whether their current position(s) is/are full-time or part-time. March 5, 2002

Creditable Service:

March 27, 2012

1. "All Buy backs must be completed within 5 years from the date of the agreement. Payments of buybacks for creditable service must by made in a lump sum (including IRA rollover or deferred compensation plan payment), effective April 1, 2012.

March 7, 2005

1. Full-time and part-time members will receive one full year of creditable service or each year employed.
2. Upon becoming a member, an employee may buy back time worked at less than twenty hours per week, when ineligible membership. Pro-ration of part-time creditable service (less than twenty hours per week) shall be based on full-time equivalency of twenty hours per week.
3. Members on an unpaid leave of absence (who are not receiving workers compensation) will receive up to one month creditable service for the leave of absence. Members will receive full service credit for a fully compensated leave of absence. Those members who are granted partial compensation for a leave of absence will receive partial service credit. This provision is retroactive to January 1, 1997.
4. Former employees who were excluded from membership by rules of the Board at the time of their employment are not eligible to buy back creditable service from the Montague Retirement System. These individuals may purchase this creditable service from their current system under MGL Ch 32 Section 3 (5). This section shall not apply to school employees who are cafeteria workers or teachers aides/paraprofessionals.
5. The Board shall not grant creditable service for time worked on "Outside Details.” However, the Board shall allow a member to buy back pro-rated creditable service for employment as a part-time Police Officer for the Town of Montague, regardless of whether the member was on an approved civil service list. Such service shall not be granted during the period for which a member receives creditable service under #C1. Such creditable service shall be dependent on adequate payroll records of the town, and shall not be granted in the absence of adequate payroll records.

Call Firefighters and Reserve Police Officers:

1. The Board shall credit as full-time service not to exceed five years, that period of time during which a reserve or intermittent police officer or a reserve, permanent intermittent or call firefighter was on his/her respective list and was eligible for assignment to duty subsequent to his/her appointment. Such service as a reserve, permanent intermittent or call firefighter shall be credited only if later appointed as a permanent member of the Fire Department.

School Employees:

1. Cafeteria workers and Teacher Aides/Paraprofessionals who are regularly employed working a full school year for a minimum of twenty hours a week and are permanent employees with a stated hourly or weekly rate of compensation must become members of the system. An exception is granted to Teacher Aides/Paraprofessionals hired prior to September 1985.
2. School employees who are continuously employed shall receive 12 months creditable service per calendar year. School employees who terminate/resign shall receive creditable service adjusted to the date of termination/resignation. A school employee who works on the last day of a school year and the first day of the following school year shall receive creditable service for the intervening months.

Veterans Buybacks:

1. If a dual service veteran requests a buy back under a provision of Massachusetts General Laws (MGL), and that veteran is a full-time employee within the Montague Retirement System (MRS) or has a majority of his /her hours within our system, the MRS will offer to have the buy back made to the MRS. If the veteran is a full-time employee within another retirement system which has accepted the necessary provisions of the MGL (or has a majority of his /her current hours in that system), the MRS will request that the buy back be made to the other system.

Regular Compensation:

Miscellaneous:

January 22, 2024

Electronic Signatures - Pursuant to 840 CMR 28.00

1.01 Purpose:

The purpose of this supplemental regulation is to address the use of any electronic signature created, generated, sent, communicated, received, or stored by the Montague Retirement System.

1.02 Statutory and Regulatory Authority:

M.G.L. c. 32, § 21(4)

M.G.L. c. 110G

840 CMR 14.02

840 CMR 28.00, et seq.

1.03 Definitions:

The following words shall have the following meanings:

“Biometrics” means unique physical characteristics, such as fingerprints, that can be used for automated recognition.

“The Board” means the Montague Retirement Board.

“Electronic signature” means:

an electronic sound, symbol, or process attached to or logically associated with a record and executed or adopted by a person with the intent to sign the record;

a digital signature that encrypts documents with digital codes that are particularly difficult to duplicate;

a signature which is received by the Board via fax, so long as the signature and the document are legible; and

a signature which is received by the Board as part of a scanned document, so long as the signature and the document are legible.

“Faxed document” means an image of a document made by electronic scanning and transmitted as data by telecommunication links.

“Prescribed form” means any form promulgated by PERAC, or any form required by the Board and subject to the approval of PERAC.

“Record” means information that is inscribed on a tangible medium or that is stored in an electronic or other medium and is retrievable in perceivable form.

“Security procedure”, a procedure employed for the purpose of verifying that an electronic signature, digital signature, record, or performance is that of a specific person or for detecting changes or errors in the information in an electronic or digital record. The term includes a procedure that requires the use of algorithms or other codes, identifying words or numbers, encryption, or callback or other acknowledgment procedures.

“Scanned document” means a physical document which has been converted into a digital image using a scanner.

“Wet signature” means a signature created when a person marks a physical document as evidence of that person's personal witness and certification of the content of all, or a specified part, of the document.

1.04 Use of Electronic Signatures

In addition to the use of wet signatures, the Board will make use of electronic signatures for any signature on any document for which the Board requires a signature for which electronic signatures are not proscribed by law or regulation, and is accepted in our internal policy.

The Board shall only make use of an electronic signature if it is unique to one individual and shall not be reused by or reassigned to anyone else.

Before certifying an individual’s electronic signature, the Board shall verify the identity of the individual. 

Any person using an electronic signature shall, upon the Board’s request, provide additional certification that a specific electronic signature is the legally binding equivalent of the signer’s wet signature.

A member of a retirement system, or a person becoming a member of a retirement system, or a person who needs to sign a form for a retirement system or PERAC for any reason, retains the right to sign a prescribed form with a wet signature upon his or her request.  Likewise, the Board retains the right to require a wet signature for any signature on any document for which the Board requires a signature.

1.05 Security Procedures

With regard to any utilization of electronic signatures, the Board will institute and maintain appropriate security procedures.

Electronic signatures that are not based upon biometrics shall:

1. employ at least two distinct identification components, such as an identification code and a password;

​​​​​​​2. be used only by their genuine owners; and

​​​​​​​3. be administered and executed to ensure that attempted use of an individual’s electronic signature by anyone other than its genuine owner is not possible.

Electronic signatures that are based upon biometrics shall be designed to ensure that they cannot be used by anyone other than their genuine owners.

1.06 Legal Effect and Enforceability

An electronic signature may not be denied legal effect or enforceability solely because it is in electronic form if it is generated in accordance with these supplemental regulations.

1.07 Attribution of Electronic Signatures

An electronic signature is attributable to a person if it was the act of the person. The act of the person may be shown in any manner, including a showing of the efficacy of any security procedure applied to determine the person to which the electronic signature was attributable.

The effect of an electronic record or electronic signature attributed to a person is determined from the context and surrounding circumstances at the time of its creation, execution, or adoption, including the parties’ agreement, if any, and otherwise as provided by law.

1.08 Notarization, Acknowledgement, Verification, or Oath Requirements

If a law requires a signature or record to be notarized, acknowledged, verified, or made under oath, the requirement is satisfied if the electronic signature of the person authorized to perform those acts, together with all other information required to be included by other applicable law, is attached to or logically associated with the signature or record.

May 25, 2016

As of April 26, 2016, all adjustments going forward where the Board utilizes G.L. c. 32, section 20(5)(c)(2), and the member or beneficiary receives an adjustment and petitions the Board for interest, the member shall be entitled to receive interest at the rate annually determined by the Public Employee Retirement Administration Commission pursuant to G.L. c. 32, s. 22(6).  The interest rate will be applied to calculate overpayments as well as underpayments

June 25, 2013

1. All retirees who retire on or after July 1, 2013 shall be required to receive their total benefit as a direct deposit unless they can show this would cause a hardship.

March 7, 2005

Repayments of Erroneous Benefits:

1. The Board will allow repayment of erroneous benefits either by a lump sum payment or by monthly payments. If monthly payments are chosen, the repayment period may not exceed the length of time over which the erroneous payment was paid.

Miscellaneous Provisions:

1. The Board will elect officers annually at the September meeting and within sixty (60) days of a Chairperson leaving the Board.
2. Employees of the Montague Retirement System are eligible for health and life insurance through the carriers offered by the town of Montague. Retirement employees are also eligible to participate in the employee-paid plans for dental, disability, additional life and similar policies offered by the Town of Montague. The Montague Retirement Board shall reimburse the employer's share of health and life insurance to the Town of Montague. The amount paid by the employee shall be included in and negotiated as part of the employment contract.
3. The Montague Retirement System will carry workers' compensation insurance for the board members and employees. In the absence of such a policy, the board will make direct payments for workers' compensation. Such payments will include lost wages and medical bills.
4. The Board shall calculate the monthly benefit for a retiree who dies prior to the last day of the month according to the following formula:
   Daily allowance (monthly allowance divided by the days in the month) multiplied by the days of life (including the day of death).
5. Board members who miss more than 3 meetings a year, for reasons other than personal or family illness, shall be requested to resign.