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An Act To Facilitate the Regionalization of Emergency Communications Dispatching Services
Be it enacted by the People of the State of Maine as follows:
Sec. 1. 5 MRSA §17656, sub-§2  is enacted to read:
 
2.  Reemployment of public safety communications dispatchers with Department of Public Safety.     Notwithstanding subsection 1, a member of the retirement system whose previous membership was based upon employment as a public safety communications dispatcher with a participating local district and whose employment with the participating local district was terminated as a result of the consolidation of the participating local district’s public safety dispatching services with the Department of Public Safety and who then becomes employed as a public safety communications dispatcher for the department may elect to include that previously earned creditable service with service earned as a state employee if that member: 
 
A.  Makes a one-time, irrevocable election no later than 30 days after commencing employment as a public safety communications dispatcher for the Department of Public Safety; and 
 
B.  Has not previously withdrawn all of the member’s accumulated contributions. 
 
If a member makes the election provided in this subsection, the State shall make whatever contribution is necessary to provide the benefits under the retirement system for the member as though the previous employment had been as a state employee, and all funds in the retirement system contributed by the member’s former employer on account of the member’s previous employment must be transferred to the account of the State and must be used to liquidate the liability incurred by reason of the previous employment.
 
Upon notification by the Department of Public Safety to the retirement system that an employee has made an election under this subsection, the retirement system shall calculate and provide to the Department of Public Safety the amount of the employer contribution required under this subsection.
 
A member who makes the election provided in this subsection and for whom applicable additional employer contributions have been paid is entitled to include the creditable service and earnable compensation with the previous employer with the creditable service and earnable compensation with the State for the purposes of benefit qualification under section 17851 and computation of benefits under section 17852.