California. Public Employees' Retirement System

Agency History

Following the 1927 Commission on Pensions of State Employees (Chapter 431, Statutes of 1927) recommendations, Californians amended Article IV of the State Constitution by adding Section 22a to require that the State provide pensions to state workers. Not long after, the State Legislature passed and Governor James Rolph, Jr. signed the bill creating the State Employee Retirement System (SERS) (Chapter 700, Statutes of 1931). SERS initially provided retirement payments to state workers and would incrementally increase to cover all California public employees. In 1939, the Legislature expanded SERS to include public teachers (Chapter 954, Statutes of 1939). The next major change to SERS came in 1962 with the Myers-Geddes State Employees' Medical and Hospital Care Act (Chapter 1236, Statutes of 1961), allowing SERS to provide health insurance to state workers. The Legislature expanded these provisions to include all public employees in 1967 (Chapter 1455, Statutes of 1967). The Long Term Care Act (Chapter 9, Statutes of 1991) further expanded the health care by granting the agency authorization to offer long-term care to all PERS members, both state and local.

SERS remained focused on providing benefits to state workers while incrementally offering benefits to non-state workers. The emphasis changed to all public employees in 1967 when the State Legislature changed the agency's name to Public Employee Retirement System (PERS) in recognition of its expanded coverage (Chapters 84 and 1631, Statutes of 1967). Subsequently, all of the public employee retirement systems became managed by the recently renamed agency. PERS would eventually change to California Public Employee Retirement System (CalPERS) in 1992 to differentiate it from other state retirement programs.

The Board of Administration (the Board) governed PERS and managed investments. Various committees, such as the Investment Committee and the Health Insurance Committee, focused on assigned areas and reported to the Board. These committees reflected the system's expanding focus.

The Board managed the retirement fund and invested in bonds starting in 1932, with real estate investment added in 1953. Furthermore, starting in 1967, the Legislature granted the Board the ability to invest up to 25 percent of the fund portfolio in the stock market (Chapters 39, 110, 1285, 1293, 1394, 1407, 1510, 1665, and 1631, Statutes of 1967). Proposition 21 in 1984 removed the 25 percent portfolio limit.

From the guide to the California Public Employee Retirement System Records, 1899-1991, (California State Archives)