RD285 - Report on the Cost and Feasibility of Providing Retirement Credits for Special Forest Wardens Who Participate Directly in Extinguishing Forest Fires


Executive Summary:
The Department of Forestry (DOF), in consultation with the Department of Human Resources Management (DHRM) and the Virginia Retirement System (VRS), evaluated the cost and feasibility of providing retirement credits for forest wardens who participate directly in extinguishing fires.

The implementation of a special enhanced retirement program for forest wardens would be unique to the Virginia Retirement System’s range of benefits that would require additional funding to procure the necessary technology and programming changes. Doing so would also result in a surcharge for DOF and an increase in the unfunded liability of the State plan. In lieu of a special enhanced retirement program for forest wardens, VRS staff offered an alternative to consider that would still recognize employees in fighting fire. This alternative is a special defined contribution. DOF would contribute a set amount of money to a defined contributions fund in correspondence to each hour an employee spends in actual fire suppression. The fund would be available when an employee meets the normal retirement eligibility criteria.