Pressed with skyrocketing retirement fund costs, the Falls Church City Council at its work session this past Monday began a preliminary discussion on the adoption of a new policy that would deny retirement benefits for any City employee convicted of a felony while in the line of duty, no matter how much the employee had accrued or contributed to his or her own retirement.

When asked about the relationship between a felony conviction and retirement benefits, City officials could only answer that the policy was already in effect in surrounding jurisdictions.