Lear

Defendants Board of Retirement of the San Diego County Employees Retirement Association (SDCERA) and County of San Diego (San Diego) appeal a judgment mandating defendants to place plaintiffs Sharon Lear and Loren Mandel in a more favorable retirement tier. Seeking reversal, defendants contend plaintiffs were not statutorily entitled to placement in the more favorable retirement tier. We reverse the judgment.

*430 I

Introduction

Under the authority of the County Employees Retirement Law of 1937 (CERL) (Gov. Code, 1 § 31450 et seq.), San Diego established SDCERA to provide employee retirement benefits. CERL grants certain reciprocal retirement benefits when a person formerly employed by a public entity with a retirement system established under CERL commences employment with another public entity also with a retirement system established under CERL. (§ 31830 et seq.)

In 1966 plaintiffs began service with reciprocal counties other than San Diego and were members of those other counties’ retirement systems.

In 1977 the Legislature amended CERL to permit counties to adopt less costly retirement systems for new employees. (§ 31483; Aquilino v. Marin County Employees’…