Section 1109-7 Discontinuance of local district pension systems 1109-0 Exemption from taxation 1109-p Protection against fraud § 1100 Definitions. The following words and phrases used in this article shall have the following meanings unless a different meaning is plainly required by the context: (1) "Retirement system" shall mean the New York state teachers' retirement system provided for in section eleven hundred and one of this article. 66 (2) Retirement board" shall mean the retirement board provided by section eleven hundred and three of this article. (3) "Employer" shall mean the state of New York, the city, the village, school district board or trustee, or other agency of and within the state by which a teacher is paid. (4) "Teacher" shall mean any regular teacher, special teacher, including any school librarian or physical training teacher, principal, vice-principal, supervisor, supervisory principal, director, superintendent, city superintendent, assistant city superintendent, district superintendent, school commissioner and other member of the teaching or professional staff of any class, public school, vocational school, truant reformatory school or parental school and of any or all classes of schools within the state of New York, including schools on the Indian reservation, conducted under the order and superintendence of and wholly or partly at the expense of the New York state education department or of a duly elected board of education, board of school directors or board of trustees of the state or of any city or school district thereof, provided that no person shall be deemed a teacher within the meaning of this article who is not so employed for full time outside vacation periods. The word, "teacher," shall also include any person employed in the state education department who at the time he entered such employment, or within one year prior thereto, was a teacher within the foregoing definition, or who is engaged in such department in the performance of duties pertaining to instructional services. In all cases of doubt, the retirement board shall determine whether any person is a teacher as defined in this article. 66 (5) Present teacher" shall mean any teacher who was a teacher on or before the first day of August, nineteen hundred and twenty-one, whose membership in the retirement system created by this act has been continuous and (a) who became a member of the retirement system created by this act on or before the first day of August nineteen hundred and twenty-two; or (b) who was a member of a local district pension system on or before the first day of August, nineteen hundred and twentyone, who continued thereafter to be a member until he, with the membership of such local district pension system, became a member of the retirement system created by this act. (6) "New entrant" shall mean any teacher who is a member of the retirement system except a present teacher. (7) "Contributor" shall mean any member of the retirement system who has an account in the annuity savings fund as provided by this article. (8) "Beneficiary" shall mean any person in receipt of a retirement allowance or other benefit as provided by this article. (9) "Regular interest" shall mean interest at four per centum per annum compounded annually. (10) "Accumulated contributions" shall mean the sum of all the amounts deducted from the compensation of a contributor, and credited to his individual account in the annuity savings fund together with regular interest thereon. (11) "Final average salary" shall mean the average annual compensation earnable as a teacher during the five years of service immediately preceding his date of retirement. (12) "Annuity" shall mean the annual payments for life derived from contributions made by contributor as provided in this article. All annuities shall be paid in equal monthly installments. (13) "Pension" shall mean the annual payments for life de rived from payments made by an employer as provided in this article. All pensions shall be paid in equal monthly installments. (14) "Retirement allowance" shall mean the pension plus the annuity. (15) "Annuity reserve" shall mean the present value of all payments to be made on account of any annuity, or benefit in lieu of any annuity, computed upon the basis of such mortality tables as shall be adopted by the retirement board with regular interest. (16) "Pension reserve" shall mean the present value of all payments to be made on account of any pension, or benefit in lieu of any pension, computed upon the basis of such mortality tables 66 as shall be adopted by the retirement board with regular interest. (17) Retirement fund shall mean the state teachers' retirement fund for public school teachers of the state of New York as created by chapter one hundred and forty of the laws of nineteen hundred and ten, chapter four hundred and forty-nine of the laws of nineteen hundred and eleven, chapter forty-four of the laws of nineteen hundred and fourteen and chapter one hundred and three of the laws of nineteen hundred and nineteen. (18) "Local district pension system" shall mean any teachers' retirement system or other arrangement for the payment of pensions or annuities to teachers exclusive of the retirement fund, created in any city or school district of this state prior to the first day of August, nineteen hundred and twenty-one. § 1101 Establishment of retirement system. (1) The retirement system shall be established on the first day of August, nineteen hundred and twenty-one, and shall be known as the "New York state teachers' retirement system." (2) The retirement system so created shall have the powers and privileges of a corporation, and under its corporate name all of its business shall be transacted, all funds invested, all warrants for money drawn and payments made, and all cash and securities and other property shall be held. § 1102 Membership of system. (1) The membership of the retirement system shall consist of the following: (a) All teachers who were teachers on or before the first day of August, nineteen hundred and twenty-one, who shall file with the retirement board applications for membership, except those specifically excluded under subdivision four of this section. (b) All teachers who were not teachers on or before the first day of August, nineteen hundred and twenty-one, except those specifically excluded under subdivision four of this section. (2) The retirement board may, in its discretion, deny the right to become members to any class of teachers whose compensation is only partly paid by the employer or who are serving on a temporary or any other than a per annum basis, and it may also, in its discretion, make optional with members in any such class their individual entrance into membership. (3) The membership of any person in the retirement system shall cease if he shall be continuously absent without pay for a period of more than two years, or if in any five-year period after he last became a member, he shall render less than two years of service as a teacher, or upon the withdrawal by a contributor of his accumulated deductions as provided in this article or upon retirement on a pension, or at death. (4) Teachers who are members or who become members of a local district pension system maintained under the laws of the state from appropriations or contributions made wholly or partly by an employer shall be excluded from membership in this retirement system. But should more than two-thirds of all the teachers participating in such local district pension system apply for membership in the retirement system created by this article by a petition duly signed and verified, approved by their employers and filed with the retirement board, all the teachers included in the membership of such local district pension system shall become members of the retirement system created by this article at such time within three months after the filing of such petition as the retirement board shall designate. Thereupon, the local district pension system of which they were members shall be dissolved and discontinued as provided in section eleven hundred and nine-l of this article. § 1103 Retirement board; members; terms of office. (1) The general administration and responsibility for the proper operation of the retirement system and for making effective the provisions of this article is hereby vested in a retirement board which shall be organized immediately after the appointment of its members. The retirement board shall from time to time establish rules and regulations for the administration and transaction of its business and for the control of the funds created herein and shall perform such other functions as are required for the execution of the provisions of this article. (2) The retirement board shall consist of seven members as follows: (a) One member, who is not an employee of the state, who shall be an executive officer of a bank authorized to do business in this state, elected by the board of regents of the university of the state of New York to serve for a term of three years. Following the completion of the initial term, the stated term of service of such member shall be three years. (b) Two administrative officers of the New York state school system, appointed by the commissioner of education, one to serve for two years and one to serve for three years. Members of the present state teachers' retirement fund board shall be deemed to be administrative officers of the New York state school system within the meaning of this provision. Following the completion. of the initial terms, the stated terms of service of such members shall be three years. (c) The comptroller of the state of New York or one member appointed by him who shall serve until his successor is appointed. (d) Three members elected from among the members of the retirement system, one to serve for one year, one for two years, one for three years. Following the completion of the initial terms, the stated terms of service of such members shall be three years. § 1104 Election of elected members of board. An annual convention of the members of the retirement system shall be held at twelve o'clock noon on the Monday immediately preceding Thanksgiving in the same city as the annual convention of the New York state teachers' association, or in the absence of such convention, in the state education building at Albany, beginning with the year nineteen hundred and twenty-one, for the purpose of electing members of the board of retirement of the retirement system. Said convention shall be composed of delegates selected as hereinafter provided from each territory constituting the jurisdiction of a district superintendent, of a village or city superintendent, which territory shall constitute a territorial unit of representation in the assembly of delegates. Said convention shall be called to order by a member of the retirement board designated by said board, and shall organize by the election of a chairman and a secretary. Each territorial unit shall be entitled to be represented in such convention by one delegate for each two hundred members of the retirement system in said unit and one delegate for any fraction over one hundred; provided, that each unit shall be entitled to at least one delegate. Said delegate shall be elected by the vote of a majority of the members of the retirement system voting at a meeting held for the purpose of electing such delegates. Said meeting for the election of delegates shall be held at such convenient place as shall be selected by the superintendent of the territory. Notice of the time and place of said meeting shall be issued by said superintendent at least ten days before the date of said meeting. Said meeting shall organize by the election of a chairman and secretary. Said secretary shall, within five days after said meeting, forward to the retirement board of the retirement system a certificate containing the names and addresses of the delegates elected to the annual convention, and shall furnish the delegates elected with a certificate of their election. In case of a vacancy in the delegation from any unit, the remaining delegates from such unit may fill |