Aquilino

I. Introduction

Twenty counties in this state, including Marin County, have established retirement plans for county employees and employees of other governmental entities located within the county pursuant to the County Employees Retirement Law of 1937 (CERL) as codified in 1947 (Gov. Code, § 31450 et seq. ). Due to impending fiscal shortfalls facing these counties, in 1977 the Legislature enacted section 31483, which clarified the authority of counties to establish tiers in their retirement plans. We are called upon to assess the impact of this legislation on the “redeposit rights” of certain Marin County employees. These employees, appellants here, were originally employed prior to the establishment of tiers in Marin County, were members of the retirement plan, left employment, withdrew their accumulated retirement contributions, were subsequently reemployed after the establishment of the tiers, redeposited their retirement contributions pursuant to section 31652, subdivision (a) and requested readmission to the more favorable retirement tier. We conclude that such redepositing employees must be returned to the more favorable tier of the Marin County plan and,…