Thursday, Mar. 26, 9:45 p.m. EDT — At a joint work session with the Falls Church School Board tonight, three members of the seven-member F.C. City Council openly expressed their misgivings with the School Board’s plans to offer a half-step salary increase to all its employees, in a budget where the salaries of all City-side employees are slated to be frozen, and seven City-wide jobs cut. Lawrence Webb, Hal Lippman and Nader Baroukh made their misgivings plain at the meeting, while other Council members did not take firm stands on what Mayor Robin Gardner called the issue that was “the giant elephant in the room.” The Council and School Board will meet in at least one more work session again before the Council decides on what level to fund the School Board when it adopts its final budget for the coming fiscal year on April 27.