A. There is created the "board of the retiree health care authority". The board shall be composed of not more than twelve members.

B. The board shall include:

(1) one member who is not employed by or on behalf of or contracting with an employer participating in or eligible to participate in the Retiree Health Care Act and who shall be appointed by the governor to serve at the pleasure of the governor;

(2) the educational retirement director or the educational retirement director's designee;

(3) one member to be selected by the public school superintendents' association of New Mexico;

(4) one member who is a teacher who is certified and teaching in elementary or secondary education to be selected by a committee composed of one person designated by the New Mexico association of classroom teachers, one person designated by the national education association of New Mexico and one person designated by the New Mexico federation of teachers;

(5) one member who is an eligible retiree of a public school and who is selected by the New Mexico association of retired educators;

(6) the executive secretary of the public employees retirement association or the executive secretary's designee;

(7) one member who is an eligible retiree receiving a benefit from the public employees retirement association and who is selected by the retired public employees of New Mexico;

(8) one member who is an elected official or employee of a municipality participating in the Retiree Health Care Act and who is selected by the New Mexico municipal league;

(9) the state treasurer or the state treasurer's designee; and

(10) one member who is a classified state employee selected by the personnel board.

C. The board, in accordance with the provisions of Paragraph (3) of Subsection D of Section 10-7C-9 NMSA 1978, shall include, if they qualify:

(1) one member who is an eligible retiree of an institution of higher education participating in the Retiree Health Care Act and who is selected by the New Mexico association of retired educators; and

(2) one member who is an elected official or employee of a county participating in the Retiree Health Care Act and who is selected by the New Mexico association of counties.

D. Every member of the board shall serve at the pleasure of the party that selected that member.

E. The members of the board shall begin serving their positions on the board on the effective date of the Retiree Health Care Act or upon their selection, whichever occurs last, unless that member's corresponding position on the board has been eliminated pursuant to Subsection D of Section 10-7C-9 NMSA 1978.

F. The board shall elect from its membership a president, vice president and secretary.

G. The board may appoint such officers and advisory committees as it deems necessary. The board may enter into contracts or arrangements with consultants, professional persons or firms as may be necessary to carry out the provisions of the Retiree Health Care Act.

H. The members of the board and its advisory committees shall receive per diem and mileage as provided in the Per Diem and Mileage Act [10-8-1 to 10-8-8 NMSA 1978] but shall receive no other compensation, perquisite or allowance.

History: Laws 1990, ch. 6, § 6; 1993, ch. 362, § 2; 2003, ch. 382, § 1.

Compiler's notes. — The phrase "effective date of the Retiree Health Care Act", referred to in this section, means February 13, 1990, the effective date of Laws 1990, ch. 6.

The 2003 amendment, effective April 8, 2003, substituted "superintendents"' for "superintendents'" following "public school" in Paragraph B(2); substituted "personnel board" for "active state employees" in Paragraph B(10); and substituted "is" for "shall be", "who is" for "shall be", and "and who is" for "to be" throughout the section.

The 1993 amendment, effective June 18, 1993, divided Subsection A into Subsections A and B, substituting "not more than twelve" for "eleven" in the second sentence of Subsection A and the introductory language of Subection B for "consisting of the following"; in Subsection B, rewrote the provisions of Paragraphs (6) and (10) as Subsection C, renumbering the remaining paragraphs and subsections accordingly; substituted "retiree receiving a benefit from the public employees retirement association" for "state government retiree" in Paragragh (7), and added Paragraph (10), making a related grammatical change; substituted "10-7C-9 NMSA 1978" for "9 of the Retiree Health Care Act" in Subsection E; and made stylistic changes in Subsections B and D.