(a) Any member of the retirement system or of a superseded system shall be entitled to establish retirement credit for previous service rendered as a public defender upon the making of a lump sum payment of the contributions such member would have made had such member been a member of the state retirement system, plus interest at the rate provided for in § 8-37-214:
(1) Service established in accordance with this provision shall be credited in Group 1 only of the retirement system;
(2) Notwithstanding §§ 40-14-201 and 40-14-202, a public defender, for the purpose of establishing retirement credit in accordance with this provision, means any attorney appointed or elected under local governmental provisions and who is employed by a local government on a full-time basis to represent persons accused of crimes who are unable to pay for such representation.
(b) Retirement credit for public defender service as provided for herein shall not be granted unless authorized under the following terms and conditions:
(1) In the case of a member whose public defender's service was rendered to a local government unit which is not a participating employer, the governing body may at its discretion authorize by resolution and accept the liability of the employer cost to establish this service; or
(2) In the case of a member whose service was rendered to a local government unit participating pursuant to chapter 35, part 2 of this title, the governing body may at its discretion authorize by resolution and accept the liability for all current and former employees to receive retirement credit for public defender service.
(c) The retirement system shall not be liable for the payment of retirement allowances or other payments on account of this section for which reserves have not been previously created from funds contributed by the respective local government or the affected members. All costs associated with this section shall be the responsibility of the respective local government for which the public defender service was rendered. Should any required employer costs become delinquent, the commissioner of finance and administration, at the direction of the board of trustees of the retirement system, is authorized to withhold the amount or part of the amount from any state-shared taxes that are otherwise apportioned to the local government.
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