The Marshall County Council has amended the Police Retirement Plan used by the county.
During Monday morning’s meeting, a representative of actuarial firm McCready and Keene addressed the council about benefit changes that have been recommended. According to Sheriff Matt Hassel, the county Merit Board has not as of yet recommended the changes.
Stan Brown with the company says there are parameters.
“When you enter DROP, you’re setting an end date because you have to eventually exit drop,” says Brown. “The plan amendment specifies three years. So at the most, someone can be in DROP three years and then they have to retire.”
DROP stands for Deferred Retirement Option Plan and is intended to allow an employee to set a retirement date and then continue earning a salary past that date. Not every employee within the Sheriff’s Department would be eligible, there are requirements that must first be met.
The second consideration to include in the Marshall County Police Retirement Plan is an unmarried death benefit. The recommendation concludes that if an officer dies while in the line of duty and is unmarried, his death benefits may not be paid to anyone in certain circumstances.
Brown says the unmarried death benefit has been a popular change around the state the last few years.
“Both changes are cost neutral. DROP has to be designed to be neutral and so it’s not going to impact the funding requirement from the county,” says Brown.
The recommendations give employees of the Sheriff’s Department more options to consider through their benefits package.
The County Council on Monday agreed to make the amendments to their local plans to include the recommended changes.
