(a) Re-employment. When any former police officer of the city is re-employed, he or she will become a member of the plan upon re-employment as a full time permanent police officer. When a former police officer of the city is re-employed and had withdrawn contributions previously made to the plan, he or she may reinstate the previous service provided the plan is paid the total amount previously withdrawn (consisting of accumulated member contributions plus any interest previously paid by the plan on those contributions) in a lump sum within six months of re-employment or, effective November 9, 2010, in installment payments over a period of up to 5 years and the installment payments must begin within 6 months of re-employment. The total amount is brought forward with interest for the total number of months from the date of withdrawal to the date of repayment, calculated to the nearest month. This calculated amount equals the amount to be repaid to the plan in a lump sum. If the member chooses to pay over time, interest will continue to accrue during the period of repayment. The interest to bring forward the total amount will be at the equivalent compound monthly rate derived from the earning rate assumed by the actuary in the most recent actuarial valuation submitted to the Division of Retirement pursuant to F.S. Chapter 112, Part VII. No credit shall be given for any service until all years of service which are to be repurchased, have been repurchased.
(b) Prior police officer service. Unless otherwise prohibited by law, the years or fractional parts of years that a police officer previously served as a police officer for any other municipal, county, state or federal police department or service in the military shall be added to the years of credited service provided that:
(1) The police officer contributes to the fund the sum that would have been contributed, based on the police officer’s salary and the employee contribution rate in effect at the time that the credited service is requested, had the police officer been a member of this system for the years or fractional parts of years for which the credit is requested plus amount actuarially determined such that the crediting of service does not result in any cost to the fund plus payment of costs for all professional services rendered to the Board in connection with the purchase of years of credited service.
(2) Payment by the police officer of the requirement amount may be made within six months of the request for credit and in one lump sum payment, or the police officer can buy back this time over a period equal to the length of time being purchased or five years, whichever is greater, at an interest rate which is equal to the fund’s actuarial assumption. A police officer may request to purchase a maximum of five years of service. No credit shall be given for any service until all years of service which are to be repurchased, have been repurchased.
(3) The credit purchased under this section shall count for benefit computation purposes, but not for vesting.
(4) In no event, however, may credited service be purchased pursuant to this section for prior service with any other municipal, county or state police department, if such prior service forms or will form the basis of a retirement benefit or pension from another retirement system or plan. This subparagraph does not apply to military service.
