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House passes bill allowing retired PERSI members to serve as unpaid volunteers without jeopardizing benefits
Summary
House Bill 55 passed unanimously in the House (69-0 with one absent). The bill creates a 'bona fide volunteer' category intended to let retirees advise or assist without pay during a 90-day blackout period after retirement, though some questions about scope and compensated stipends were raised on the floor.
The Idaho House passed House Bill 55 on Feb. 6, 2025, by a roll-call vote of 69 ayes with one member absent and excused. The bill establishes language allowing retired members of the Public Employee Retirement System of Idaho (PERSI) to act as “bona fide volunteers” without compensation and without jeopardizing their retirement benefits during the statutory 90-day blackout period that currently bars former employees from contact with their former positions.
The sponsor, identified on the floor as the Representative from District 23, said the change responds to retirees with decades of institutional knowledge who are precluded from providing informal assistance after retirement. “They find out that right after they retire, there's a 90 day blackout period that they're to have no contact of any kind with their former position,” the sponsor said. The sponsor added the bill creates a volunteer category with no promise of compensation and that PERSI’s director contributed to drafting the language and supports the approach.
A colleague asked whether the volunteer language would allow retired coaches to continue coaching when the stipend comes from a booster club or another non-district source. The sponsor said he was unsure and recommended that specific questions about compensated stipends or coaching arrangements be resolved by PERSI staff.
The House passed the bill, and the clerk recorded the title approval and transfer to the Senate.
