Next Board Meeting:

Next Board Meeting (Annual Retreat):

The VCERA Office will be closed on Thursday, December 25 in observance of Christmas Day.

Holiday Closure

The VCERA Office will be closed on Thursday and Friday, November 27 and 28, in observance of Thanksgiving.

The VCERA Office will be closed on Tuesday, November 11 in observance of Veterans Day.

The VCERA Office will be closed on Monday, September 1 in observance of Labor Day.

The VCERA Office will be closed on Friday, July 4 in observance of Independence Day.

The VCERA Office will be closed on Thursday, June 19 in observance of Juneteenth.

The VCERA Office will be closed on Monday, May 26 in observance of Memorial Day.

The VCERA Office will be closed on Monday, February 17 in observance of Presidents&#8217; Day.

The VCERA Office will be closed on Monday, January 20 in observance of Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

The VCERA Office will be closed on Wednesday, January 1 in observance of New Year&#8217;s Day.

The VCERA Office will be closed on Wednesday, December 25 in observance of Christmas Day.

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Get to know your pension plan and how it can provide you with a secure retirement.

New to VCERA

Retirement may still seem far off, but there are things you can plan for today.

Mid-Career

It is critical to let VCERA know when certain events in your life occur.

Life or Career Change

With your retirement date in sight, here are some important tips you should consider.

Nearing Retirement

Learn more about pension pay dates, COLAs, deductions and other retiree-specific topics.

Retirees & Beneficiaries

Retired

View the latest meeting agenda for the Board of Retirement.

Meeting Agendas & Minutes

Board Meetings

Choose the guide that matches your career stage

Get Started — What you need to know

Check out the latest news, updates, &amp; reports from VCERA

VCERA is funded by member (employee) contributions, employer contributions, and investment earnings. Together, these funding sources enable VCERA to offer its members retirement benefits that last a lifetime.



Employee and employer retirement contribution rates are adjusted annually based on recommendations from <a href="https://content.vcera.org/about/financials/actuarial-valuations/">VCERA’s Actuarial Valuation by Segal</a>. We have updated our website to reflect the new retirement contribution rates for the fiscal year beginning on July 1, 2025. Please find the updated rates on our <a href="https://content.vcera.org/members/active-members/contributions/contribution-rates/">Contribution Rates webpage</a>.



You can find more information about contributions on our <a href="https://content.vcera.org/members/active-members/contributions/">website</a>.



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Contribution Rates for Fiscal Year 2025-2026

VCERA is pleased to open a recruitment for a Disability Retirement Benefits Manager. This position will manage the daily direction of specialized Disability Retirement operations staff, oversee the administration of disability retirement cases in accordance with applicable retirement laws and medical review standards, and collaborate with medical professionals, legal counsel, and leadership to ensure compliant and timely case processing. To learn more about the job opening and to apply, click on the link below.



Payroll Title:&nbsp;Staff/Services Manager II/III Position Type:&nbsp;Full-Time Recruitment Period:&nbsp;7/9/2025 – 7/24/2025 Salary Range:&nbsp;$94,952.16 – $142,613.65 Annually Job Posting: <a href="https://www.governmentjobs.com/careers/ventura/jobs/4997121/disability-retirement-benefits-manager">https://www.governmentjobs.com/careers/ventura/jobs/4997121/disability-retirement-benefits-manager</a>

Open Recruitment for Disability Retirement Benefits Manager

VCERA is pleased to open a recruitment for an Office Assistant. This position will be responsible for an array of clerical duties for VCERA, including customer service, document processing, record management, scheduling, and general office logistics. To learn more about the job opening and to apply, click on the link below.



Payroll Title: Office Assistant III-Confidential Position Type: Full-Time Recruitment Period: 7/3/2025 – 7/10/2025 Salary Range: $51,410.05 – $71,981.14 Annually Job Posting: <a href="https://www.governmentjobs.com/careers/ventura/jobs/4966589/office-assistant-iii-confidential">https://www.governmentjobs.com/careers/ventura/jobs/4966589/office-assistant-iii-confidential</a>

Open Recruitment for Office Assistant

VCERA staff are implementing the July 2020 California Supreme Court Decision,&nbsp;Alameda County Deputy Sheriffs’ Association v. Alameda County Employees’ Retirement Association&nbsp;(2020) 9 Cal.5th 1032, 1070, commonly referred to as “Alameda.” This implementation is being executed in accordance with the latest direction received from the Board of Retirement in Resolutions passed by the VCERA Board between October 2020 and April 2023.



VCERA staff are providing bimonthly Alameda implementation status updates to the Board of Retirement at Board meetings. Highlights from the latest status report include:



<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li>April of 2025 marked two years since the project kick-off, after the Board passed the Alameda Resolutions regarding Flex Credit and PEPRA Exclusions in April 2023.</li>



<li>The VCERA Project for Alameda Corrections team includes several staff, plus coordination with the County of Ventura and many other consultants and system support services.</li>



<li>The project consists of two phases:
<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li>Phase 1 – Calculate corrections to pensionable earnings &amp; member contributions</li>



<li>Phase 2 – Calculate corrections to retirement benefits &amp; process refunds with interest</li>
</ul>
</li>



<li>VCERA is nearing the end of Phase 1 and has begun the setup and initial tasks of Phase 2.</li>



<li>A recent upgrade to the County’s payroll system has initiated a second testing round of County historical correction files. VCERA and County staff are closely collaborating on data cleanup and continued testing.</li>



<li>VCERA staff and project partners are now conducting final testing of the flex credit corrections for the period prior to 2004.</li>



<li>VCERA staff and project partners continue to develop and test modifications to the Pension Administration System, which are required for corrections file processing.</li>



<li>Next steps include the development and testing of a tool to apply interest to monthly benefit corrections and determine final amounts eligible for refund.</li>



<li>The refunds and benefit recalculations will begin after completion of Phase 1, and are projected to take a year or more to complete. An updated timeline estimate is expected to be available in summer 2025.</li>



<li>Affected members will receive individual communication prior to their corrections being processed.</li>
</ul>



VCERA will post additional updates about its Alameda Implementation as the multi-year project progresses. To receive email alerts when updates are posted to our website, please enter your information here:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.vcera.org/vcera-website-notifications">https://www.vcera.org/vcera-website-notifications</a>.

Alameda Implementation Status Update

VCERA’s annual benefit statements as of December 31, 2024, as well as information about the Alameda Decision, were mailed to all active VCERA members on March 28, 2025. If you have any questions about your statement or the <a href="https://content.vcera.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/VCERA-FACT-SHEET-ALAMEDA-FINAL.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Alameda Fact Sheet</a>, please contact VCERA at <a href="tel:8053394250">(805) 339-4250</a> or <a href="mailto:vcera.info@ventura.org">vcera.info@ventura.org</a>.



This year, unlike prior years, VCERA’s participating employers chose not to include Deferred Compensation information from Fidelity on VCERA’s annual benefit statement. Please contact the County of Ventura at <a href="mailto:Deferred.Compensation@ventura.org">Deferred.Compensation@ventura.org</a> for this information.



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Annual Benefit Statements Mailed

VCERA is pleased to open a recruitment for a Retirement Accounting Technician. This position will be responsible for complex bookkeeping, accounts payable, fiscal data evaluation and analysis, fiscal monitoring, summarizing financial transactions for annual reports, and other accounting functions for VCERA. To learn more about the job opening and to apply, click on the link below.



Payroll Title: Senior Accounting Technician Position Type: Full-Time Recruitment Period: 3/19/2025 – 4/2/2025 Salary Range: $61,850.10 – $86,590.15 Annually Job Posting: <a href="https://www.governmentjobs.com/careers/ventura/jobs/4849277/retirement-senior-accounting-technician-cc">https://www.governmentjobs.com/careers/ventura/jobs/4849277/retirement-senior-accounting-technician-cc</a>

Open Recruitment for Senior Accounting Technician

The 2025 cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) for eligible retirees, beneficiaries, and other payees with a retirement date of April 1, 2025 or earlier will be reflected in retirement benefit payments on April 30, 2025:



<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li>Safety retirees and General Tier 1* retirees: 3.0%</li>
</ul>



The COLA awarded to Safety retirees and General Tier 1 (Legacy) retirees is based on the year-over-year change (as of December) in the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Consumer Price Index (CPI) for the Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim region. If the CPI change, after being rounded to the nearest half percent, is more than the 3.0% COLA maximum, the excess will be “banked” and applied to a COLA in a future year when the annual CPI change is less than 3.0%. The regional CPI change from December 2023&nbsp;to December 2024&nbsp;was 3.5% after rounding. The Board of Retirement approved the 3.0% COLA at its meeting on February 24, 2025.



<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li>General Tier 2 and Tier 8*&nbsp;retirees (eligible SEIU and CNA service**): 2.0%</li>
</ul>



The COLA awarded to eligible General Tier 2 (Legacy) and Tier 8 (PEPRA) retirees represented by SEIU or CNA is 2.0%. This percentage is not subject to CPI changes. The 2.0% General Tier 2 and Tier 8 COLA increases are automatic under the terms of the Board of Retirement Regulation and applicable labor agreements, and require no additional Board approval. For SEIU retirees, this applies to any eligible service rendered on or after March 16, 2003 (for retirements on or after March 13, 2005). For CNA retirees, this applies to any eligible service rendered on or after June 25, 2023.



If you would like to learn more about VCERA’s annual COLAs, click <a href="https://www.vcera.org/members/retirees-beneficiaries/cost-of-living-adjustment">here</a> or <a href="https://www.vcera.org/contact-us">contact VCERA</a>.



*For more information about benefit tiers, click <a href="https://www.vcera.org/members/active-members/benefit-tiers">here</a>. **SEIU is the Service Employees International Union. CNA is the California Nurses Association.<a id="_msocom_1"></a>

2025 Cost-of-Living Adjustment (COLA)

On January 5, 2025, former President Biden signed the Social Security Fairness Act into law, after it was passed by the Senate in December and House in November.



The legislation eliminates the <a href="https://www.ssa.gov/pubs/EN-05-10045.pdf">Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP)</a> and Government Pension Offset (GPO.) It will stop the reduction of Social Security benefits for certain retirees who receive public pensions. Additionally, a provision that reduced social security benefits for surviving spouses and family of pensioners was also eliminated.



The Social Security Administration (SSA) will recalculate benefits for those affected by the WEP and GPO. Payments will be retroactive to December 2023.



This law does not impact or change any members’ VCERA retirement benefits. Only Social Security (SS) benefits are impacted, and only people who receive a pension based on work not covered by Social Security may see changes to their SS benefits. While most VCERA members participate in Social Security and are therefore not affected by the new law, there are several bargaining groups, such as Law Enforcement and Fire Suppression (Safety members), that are not subject to Social Security. 



If you are an affected retiree, the SSA will contact you, or you can visit <a href="http://www.ssa.gov">www.ssa.gov</a> for more information.



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Social Security Fairness Act

VCERA is pleased to open a recruitment for a Retirement Benefits Manager. This position will assist the Chief Operations Officer (COO) in supervising professional-level specialized Retirement operations staff, including providing training to staff and ensuring departmental compliance with state, federal, and county regulations and policies. To learn more about the job opening and to apply, click on the link below.



Payroll Title:&nbsp;Retirement Benefits Manager II/III Position Type:&nbsp;Full-Time Regular Recruitment Period:&nbsp;2/18/2025 – 3/4/2025 Salary Range:&nbsp;$94,952.16 – $142,613.65 Annually Job Posting: <a href="https://www.governmentjobs.com/careers/ventura/jobs/4819992/retirement-benefits-manager-ii-iii">https://www.governmentjobs.com/careers/ventura/jobs/4819992/retirement-benefits-manager-ii-iii</a>

Open Recruitment for Retirement Benefits Manager

VCERA Staff are implementing the July 2020 California Supreme Court Decision, Alameda County Deputy Sheriffs’ Association v. Alameda County Employees’ Retirement Association (2020) 9 Cal.5th 1032, 1070, commonly referred to as “Alameda.” This implementation is being executed in accordance with the latest direction received from the Board of Retirement in Resolutions passed by the VCERA Board between October 2020 and April 2023.



VCERA staff has provided the Board of Retirement with Alameda implementation status updates at the monthly Board meetings. Highlights from the latest status reports include:



<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li>The VCERA Project for Alameda Corrections team includes several staff, plus coordination with the County of Ventura and many other consultants and system support services.</li>



<li>The project consists of two phases:<ul><li>Phase 1 – Calculate corrections to pensionable earnings &amp; member contributions</li></ul>
<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li>Phase 2 – Calculate corrections to retirement benefits &amp; process refunds with interest</li>
</ul>
</li>



<li>VCERA is nearing the end of Phase 1, with work in Phase 2 projected to begin in 2025.</li>



<li>Currently, VCERA staff are working to clean up historical data, and test system enhancements for accuracy of the corrections.</li>



<li>The County has recently completed programming for certain calculations and the next step is for the project team to perform full testing of those changes.</li>



<li>Refunds and benefit recalculations are projected to begin in the second half of 2025. That process is projected to take a year or more to complete.</li>



<li>Affected members will receive individual communication prior to their corrections being processed.</li>
</ul>



VCERA will post additional updates about its Alameda Implementation as the multi-year project progresses. To receive email alerts when updates are posted to our website, please enter your information here: <a href="https://www.vcera.org/vcera-website-notifications">https://www.vcera.org/vcera-website-notifications</a>.

Updates & Alerts

Life is full of excitement, twists, and turns. Click on any of the common milestones listed here for insights and guidance on how they might affect your plan.

Get Started — What you need to know

Get Started

New to VCERA

Mid-Career

Life or Career Change

Nearing Retirement

Retired

Board Meetings

Updates & Alerts

Updates & Alerts

News •July 11, 2025

Contribution Rates for Fiscal Year 2025-2026

News •July 10, 2025

Open Recruitment for Disability Retirement Benefits Manager

News •July 03, 2025

Open Recruitment for Office Assistant

Planning & Guidance

Thinking About Retirement