The Reciprocal Retirement Act (Michigan Public Act 88 of 1961) allows public employees to combine service they may have earned with another Michigan governmental unit in order to qualify for a pension. The City Commission adopted the provisions of sections one through five of the Reciprocal Retirement Act in 1965 for all City of Marquette employees, but the City has not, for the most part, implemented its provisions.
Additionally, while the Municipal Employees Retirement System (MERS) has a standard application and process for employees seeking to take advantage of reciprocal retirement benefits, the City’s in-house Fire-Police (Act 345) Pension system so far does not. Because members are looking to utilize this benefit as a recruitment tool or benefit themselves through the application of prior service credits, a similar policy and application have been developed for our Act 345 Pension.
All active employees in the Pension System will be required to submit documentation if they plan to seek years of service for a reduced pension when age requirements have been met and per the policy, the City will require any new hires to submit documentation at the time of hire should prior service credit be a factor in retirement.