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This Page Describes

• Becoming a Member
• Full Membership
• Membership After Termination and Return to Department Employment
• Membership - Transfers From Other City Departments

Becoming a Member

   Plan membership is mandatory for all eligible employees; however, you cannot be a Plan member if you are ineligible.

You are ineligible for Plan membership if:

• you are an elected officer or an officer appointed by the Mayor,
  or

• you are employed under a contract for professional services,
  or

• you perform only intermittent or occasional work for the Department,
  or

• you are employed in certain Civil Service exempt construction classifications,
  or

• you work less than 20 hours a week.

   If you are an employee who has never worked for the City or the Department before, your membership will begin on the first day of the payroll period after your first day of work. Your paycheck for that payroll period will show a deduction for Retirement. This will tell you that you have begun to accumulate service credit.

Full Membership

   Your Full Membership, which includes disability and death benefit coverage, will begin once you have completed a Qualification Period of 26 weeks (approximately 6 months) of continuous Department service. At that time your deductions toward benefits will increase to pay for all three programs of the Plan - retirement, disability, and death benefits.

   Before your membership begins you may be given a physical examination. Also, you must furnish documents or other information verifying personal data, agree to make the required contributions, and name a beneficiary.

   Certain changes in your employment status can cause your Plan membership to end.

Your membership will end if:

• you terminate employment in DWP,
  or

• you retire,
  or

• you become ineligible to participate. (See "You are ineligible for Plan membership if"),
  or

• you are suspended from Plan membership for supplying false or misleading personal data.

Membership After Termination and Return to Department Employment

   If you leave the Department after you have become a Plan member and later return to work for the Department and are eligible, your membership will begin again. (See "Becoming a Member")

You will become a Full Member again:

• on the first day of the payroll period following your reemployment
  or

• on the day of reemployment if you are returning from another Los Angeles City department with no break in service.

Membership - Transfers from Other City Departments

   If you transferred to DWP directly from another City Department without a break in service, the Reciprocal Agreement between the Plan and the LACERS may affect your membership date in the DWP Plan, as shown below. (See "Reciprocal Agreement Between the Plan and the LACERS").

• If your transfer occurred after you completed 26 weeks of LACERS membership, and you are eligible to participate in the Reciprocal Agreement, you will become a Full Member on your first day of DWP employment. Your funds and service credit will be automatically transferred to DWP.
   

• If your transfer occurred after you completed 26 weeks of continuous LACERS membership but you are not eligible to participate in the Reciprocal Agreement because you withdrew your Retirement contributions from the LACERS, your membership will begin on the first day of the next pay period after your transfer and you will become a Full Member on the first day of the next payroll period following 26 weeks of continuous DWP service.
   
  You can call the Retirement Plan Office to reacquire credit for your City service by re-depositing your withdrawn contributions (see "Purchasing Service Credit").
   

• If your transfer occurred after you completed 26 weeks of continuous City service but you were not a LACERS member, you will become a Full Member on the first day of the next pay period after your transfer.
   

• If your transfer occurred before you completed 26 weeks of continuous City service (whether or not you were a LACERS member), your membership will begin on the first day of the next payroll period after your transfer and you will become a Full Member the first day of the next payroll period following completion at DWP of the rest of the 26 weeks of continuous service.

• On to Contributions to the Plan