(a) Notwithstanding all other provisions relating to this article and article twenty-two of this chapter, any police officer or firefighter hired by a participating public employer on or after June 1, 2009, and before January 1, 2010, who received notice at the time of employment that he or she may be placed in a new retirement system created by legislation and who has been enrolled in but received no benefits from a municipal policemen’s or firemen’s pension and relief fund shall, if permitted by applicable federal law, be enrolled in the Municipal Police Officers and Firefighters Retirement System upon acceptance by the Consolidated Public Retirement Board of the resolution of the municipality required by section twenty-eight of this article. Employee and employer contributions made by or on behalf of the employee to the municipal pension and relief fund pursuant to article twenty-two of this chapter shall be transferred within sixty days to the retirement system created in this article and the employee subject to the transfer shall receive service credit for time worked while a member of the municipal pension and relief fund.
(b) Notwithstanding any other provision of the code to the contrary, any police officer or firefighter hired by a participating public employer on or after July 1, 2015, who chooses pursuant to section thirty-three of this article to be a member of the plan, shall be a member of the plan upon acceptance by the Consolidated Public Retirement Board of the notification by the municipality required by section thirty-three of this article.
(1) The Consolidated Public Retirement Board shall transfer assets and service credit earned on or after July 1, 2015, from the Public Employees Retirement System Trust Fund into the West Virginia Municipal Police Officers and Firefighters Retirement Fund for those police officers or firefighters who elect to be a member of the plan and were members in the Public Employees Retirement System no later than sixty days from receipt of notification by the municipality or municipal subdivision of the police officer or firefighter’s election to become a member. The amount of service credit recognized by the plan for the transferring employees shall be the service credit transferred and recognized by the Public Employees Retirement System.