The Retirement Study Council announced the creation of a PERS actuary audit subcommittee and reviewed a PERS rule change that affects a previously established combined retirement plan. Chairman told members the subcommittee will be chaired by Senator Blackshear and include Representative Plummer, Mr. Shearer and Director Karaher as a nonvoting member.

ORC staff member Mr. Hennigan told the council that the rules under review comply with the Revised Code and that the council’s staff had no further comments. Director Kara Her (Director Karaher) explained the PERS change: the combined plan established earlier alongside a defined-contribution option was closed to new members effective in 2022 because participation was very low. She said no existing member’s benefits are reduced; instead, the rule permits members who participated in multiple plans to combine service solely for eligibility calculations, not for benefit calculations.

"We closed the combined plan effective Jan. 1, 2022," Director Karaher said, and clarified that combining stranded service applies only for eligibility, not for calculating benefit amounts. The director said the change was intended to simplify retirement eligibility for a small number of members who had split service across plan designs.

Council chairman announced the subcommittee appointments with Senator Blackshear accepting chairmanship. The subcommittee is expected to review the system actuary’s work for PERS and report back; no formal vote to create the subcommittee was recorded in the transcript beyond the chair’s announcement.

The council was also told that rules subject to Joint Committee on Agency Rulemaking (JCAR) review should appear on the council’s September meeting agenda for further consideration.