Employees of county health centers established under the provisions of Chapter 205, RSMo, are not eligible for membership in the Missouri State Employees' Retirement System.

RETIREMENT: COUNTY HEALTH CENTERS: STATE EMPLOYEES' RETIREMENT SYSTEM: Employees of county health centers established under the provisions of Chapter 205, RSMo, are not eligible for membership in the Mis- souri State Employees' Re- tirement System. OPINION NO. 32 December 18, 1974 Honorable R. L. "Scoop" Usher Representative, District 12 % House Post Office State Capitol Buildinq Jefferson City, Missouri 65101 Dear Representative Usher: Fl LED $~ This is to acknowledge receipt of your request for a formal opinion from this office which reads as follows: "Are employees of County Health Centers established under Chapter 205; State em- ployees under Section 104.310 R.S.Mo 1969, and thus covered by the Missouri State Em- ployees Retirement System?" In connection with the above, in the case of Hawkins v. Mis- souri State Employees' Retirement System, 487 S.W.2d 580 (Mo.Ct. App. at K.C. 1972), the issue was whether or not a circuit court reporter was entitled to membership and prior membership credit in the Retirement System. In this regard, Section 485.060, RSMo 1969, provides that a court reporter shall receive an annual sal- ary of twelve thousand dollars and Section 485.065, RSMo 1969, provides of that salary six thousand five hundred dollars is to be paid out of the state treasury. In reaching its decision, the court determined whether or not an individual court reporter came within the definitions of "employee" and "department" as those terms are defined in subsections (11) and {15) of Section 104.310, RSMo 1969. "(11) 'Department', any department, insti- tution, board, commission, officer, court or any agency of the state government re- ceiving state appropriations including al- located funds from the federal government Honorable R. L. "Scoop" Usher and having power to certify payrolls autho- rizing payments of salary or wages against appropriations made by the federal govern- ment or the state legislature from any state fund, or against trusts or allocated funds held by the state treasurer; * * * "(15) ' Employee', any elective or appoin- tive officer or employee of the state who is employed by a department and earns a salary or wage in a position normally re- quiring the actual performance by him of duties during not less than one thousand five hundred hours per year, including each member of ehe general assembly, but not including any employee who is covered under some other retirement or benefit fund to which the state is a contributor; except this definition shall not exclude any employee as defined herein who is co- vered only under the Federal Old Age and Survivors' Insurance Act, as amended. As used in sections 104.310 to 104.550, the term 'employee' shall include civilian em- ployees of the Army National Guard or Air National Guard of this state who are em- ployed pursuant to section 709 of title 32 o'f the United States Code and paid from federal appropriated funds;" The Kansas City Court of Appeals conc luded that a court re- porter was entitled to membership and prior membership credit in the Missouri State Employees' Retirement System. The reasoning of the court was that a court reporter was an "employee" of the state as defined in subsection (15) of Section 104.310, RSMo 1969, and was employed by a "department" which receives state appropria- tions as defined in subsection (11) of Section 104.310, RSMo 1969. In regard to employees of county health centers, Section 205 . 010, RSMo 1969, provides that any county, subject to the provisions of the Missouri Constitution, may, under certain conditions, estab- lish, maintain, manage, and operate a public health center. Sec- tion 205.100, RSMo 1969, indicates that the county court shall ap- point the director of the public health center as county health officer and such county health officer shall exercise all of the rights and perform all of the duties pertaining to that office as -2- Honorable R. L. "Scoop" Usher set forth under the health laws of the state and rules and reg- ulations of the Division of Health. In addition, Section 205.110, RSMo 1969, reads as follows: "The qualifications of all persons employed in the operation of said health center shall be at least equal to the minimum standard of qualifications as set forward by the division of health or its suc cessors for positions of like importance and responsibilities." In regard to the payment of salaries of employees of county health centers , we have been informed by the deputy director of the Division of Health as follows: "You are correct in that the employees are paid by the various counties and cities and in turn are reimbursed by the Division of Health on a formula ranging from 6.6% to 77% of personal services. The formula is based upon an inverse ratio of the assessed valuation of the counties. Section 205.042, Subsection 10, provides that counties can contract with state agencies and basically this refers to the State Division of Health. "The appropriation under which we reimburse counties is set forth in House Bill No. 1006, for the period beginning July 1 , 1974 and end- ing June 30, 1975. Section 6.060 , of the above bill states , ' To the Department of Social Ser- vices for the Division of Health for financial assistance to local health ager.cies including cities, counties, and regions f o r personal service expenditures in the operation of lo- cal agencies, from General Revenue •....... $1,392,000 . I "In addition to the above General Revenue funds, we expend approximately $700,000 of Federal Funds for the same purpose." As a result of the above, it is our view that the situation of employees of county health centers is essentially different from that of court reporters. The reason being that such employ- ees are in fact employed by the various counties , performing ser- vices for the counties and are paid by the various counties and cities who in turn are only reimbursed by the Division of Health -3- Honorable R. L. "Scoop" Usher on a formula ranging from 6.6 % to 77% of personal services. We therefore conclude that employees of county health centers as pro- vided for in Chapter 205, RSMo 1969, are not eligible for parti- cipation in the Missouri State Employees' Retirement System for the reason that they are not an "employee" of the state as defined in subsection (15) of Section 104.310, RSMo 1969, and are not em- ployed by a "department" which receives state appropriations as defined in subsection (11) of Section 104.310, RSMo 1969. CONCLUSION It is the opinion of this office that employees of county health centers established under the provisions of Chapter 205 , RSMo, are not eligible for membership in the Missouri State Em- ployees' Retirement System. The foregoing opinion, which I hereby approve , was prepared by my assistant , B. J. Jones. ~:ry:;J, ~ JOHN C. DANFORTH Attorney General -4-