§ 13-38. Miscellaneous provisions.

(a)

Action against Village or Retirement Board. Nothing contained in this article shall be construed as giving to any employee or any other Person any legal or equitable right against the Village or the Retirement Board unless such right shall exist by reason of the provisions of this article or any action taken pursuant thereto.

(b)

Right of termination of employees by Village. Nothing in this article shall be construed as giving any employee the right to be retained in the service of the Village or shall in any way affect the right of the Village to control its employees and to terminate the service of any employee at any time.

(c)

Availability of agreement to employees. The Village shall apprise all employees of the adoption of this article as soon as practicable after its enactment. A copy of this article, setting forth the Plan and trust as amended, shall be made available to the employees to inspect at a place to be designated on the Village's premises at any time during regular business hours; and a statement summarizing the essential features of the Plan shall be furnished to all employees in accordance with Florida law. Future amendments to the article shall be promptly communicated to employees.

(d)

Liability. No liability shall be incurred by the Village, the Retirement Board or any fiduciary beyond the specific provisions of this article, except for gross negligence and bad faith in the performance of their duties as specified in this article. The obligations of each shall be confined to the faithful performance of their specific duties and responsibilities.

(e)

Severability. If any provisions of this Plan and trust shall be held invalid or illegal for any reason, such determination shall not affect the remaining provisions thereof; but this Plan and trust shall be construed and enforced as if such invalid or illegal provision had never been included in this article.

(f)

Spendthrift provisions. The benefits, rights, privileges, payments, proceeds, claims or other interests of any active or former Participant or his Beneficiaries under this article shall not be transferable nor subject to commutation, anticipation or encumbrance by such Participant or his Beneficiaries, nor, to the extent allowed by law, will such interests be subject to debts, contracts or engagements by such Participant or his Beneficiaries or to any judicial processes to levy upon or attach such interests for the debts, contracts or engagements of such Participant or his Beneficiaries.

(g)

Misstatement of age, misrepresentation of fact by Participant. Neither the Retirement Board nor the Village shall be obligated to provide for the Participant benefits or values greater than the lesser of:

(1)

Those which would have been provided if there had been no misstatement or misrepresentation; or

(2)

The benefits or values payable on the basis of the misstatement or misrepresentation.

(h)

Exclusive benefit. At no time prior to the satisfaction of all liabilities with respect to Participants and their Beneficiaries under this Plan shall it be possible for any part of the corpus or income of this Plan and trust to be used for or diverted to purposes other than for the exclusive benefit of Participants, former or retired Participants, or their Beneficiaries, except as provided in subsections 13-35(d) and (e); and it is intended that this condition shall not be changed by natural termination of the Plan and trust by power of revocation or amendment, by termination of the Plan and trust, by the happening of any contingency, by collateral arrangement, or by any other means. The Village can only recover amounts remaining in the trust, after the satisfaction of all fixed and contingent obligations, that are the result of erroneous actuarial computations.

(i)

Denial of claim. Any Participant or Beneficiary whose application or claim for benefits has been denied shall receive from the Retirement Board a Written notice setting forth the specific reasons for such denial, the reasons therein to be clearly and fully explained so as to afford such Participant or Beneficiary a clear understanding of the decision rendered. This notice shall include the appeal procedure as adopted by the Board of Trustees.

(j)

Administrator. The Retirement Board shall be the Plan administrator, and Retirement Board members shall be fiduciaries as regards the Plan. A fiduciary shall be any Person or entity who exercises any discretionary authority or control regarding regular, ongoing management of administration of the Plan and fund assets, and any Person or entity who renders or who has authority or responsibility to render investment advice. Any Person or entity may serve in more than one fiduciary capacity.

(k)

Fiduciaries' standards of responsibility. All fiduciaries shall discharge their duties with respect to the Plan and trust solely in the interest of Participants and Beneficiaries, and more particularly as follows:

(1)

For the exclusive purpose of providing benefits to Participants and their Beneficiaries, and defraying reasonable Plan administration expenses;

(2)

With the care, skill, prudence and diligence under the circumstances then prevailing that a prudent man acting in a like capacity and familiar with such matters would use in the conduct of an enterprise of a like character and with like aims; and

(3)

By performing their duties in accordance with the documents and instruments setting forth and governing the Plan and trust;

(4)

No fiduciary shall be held responsible for guaranteeing the fund against investment loss or depreciation in asset value.

(l)

Suspension of benefits. Monthly benefit payments otherwise due under this Plan to any Participant on account of his own service shall be suspended and forfeited for any month in which such Participant is employed by the Village as an employee for more than 40 hours of service. In the event of death during such period of suspension of benefits, survivorship rights shall continue as if benefits were not suspended or as otherwise set forth in this Plan. Any reemployment shall constitute a new period of Continuous Employment for the purpose of reparticipation and accrual of benefits.

(m)

Duplication of benefits prohibited. No Person who first became a Participant of this Plan on or after October 1, 1978, shall be paid a retirement benefit or pension which is based in whole or part upon any service with respect to which the Participant is receiving or will receive a retirement benefit or pension from another retirement system or plan. This restriction, however, is not applicable to social security benefits, it being the intention of this subsection to prevent duplication of benefits for the same period of service.

(n)

USERRA . Notwithstanding any provision of this plan to the contrary, effective as of December 12, 1994, contributions, benefits and service credit with respect to qualified military service will be provided in accordance with Section 414(u) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended, USERRA or applicable Florida law.

(Code 1974, § 13-29; Ord. No. 337, § 1(13-29), 9-19-89; Ord. No. 447, § 1, 11-16-99; Ord. No. 555, § 5, 9-20-2011)