Voluntary Employees Beneficiary Association Medical Expense Plan (VEBA)

I.  Purpose:

To allow eligible employees the opportunity to consider depositing their leave cash out payments at retirement in a medical expense reimbursement account plan.  Under the Voluntary Employee’s Beneficiary Association-Medical Expense Plan (VEBA-MEP), retiring participating employees deposit their sick leave cash out money in a tax exempt trust account for paying qualified medical expenses, including medical insurance premiums, incurred after retirement.

II.  Procedure:

A. The plan year is January 1-December 31.

B. The VEBA plan document must be in place (“ON”) within the agency in order for eligible employees to participate.

C. The VEBA-MEP option is automatically “ON” for each upcoming year unless changed by voting.

D. Employees eligible for retirement will need to place written letter to Human Resources to request a vote to turn the plan “OFF”:

1. If there are five or more requests to vote, the vote will be held by October 31 with the determination to turn the plan “OFF” or keep the plan “ON” by November 30.

E. The vote will be conducted by Human Resources:

1. Only employees eligible for retirement in the upcoming calendar year will be allowed to vote:
   - Votes will be taken by units:
   - Certificated Employees:  Teachers, Psychologist, Therapist, Nurses, Administration (including WMS and exempt employees), etc.
   - Classified Employees: RLC, T.A., Building and Grounds staff, Clerical (other than exempt), Business Office staff and IRC/Braille Access staff
2. The vote will be considered if five or more votes are received.
3. A simple majority of votes will prevail:
   - If the vote ends in a tie, Human Resources in coordination with Payroll will calculate the voting of employee’s sick leave balances.  The employee with the highest sick leave balance vote will prevail.
   - If this still results in a tie, a coin toss will be conducted to determine the outcome.
4. If no votes are received the plan will be placed “ON” for the upcoming calendar year.
5. If the VEBA-MEP plan is turned “OFF” for a calendar year, it will default to “ON” for the next calendar year and voting steps 1 through 4 will repeat.
6. When the VEBA-MEP plan is turned “ON”, employees retiring in that calendar year must contribute their sick leave cash-out to the medical expense plan or forfeit unused, compensable sick leave cash-out funds.