§ 8.06. Pension and retirement system.

The council shall have authority to establish a pension and retirement system for any and all officers and employees in the service of the city including the following elective officers and their employees: Sheriff and commonwealth attorney, but excluding the mayor and members of city council. Any such pension and retirement system shall not include any provisions that would entitle the elective officers or their employees to any benefit or a greater benefit than the benefits granted to other officers and employees of the city. Any such pension and retirement system shall be established on a jointly contributory basis, except as to prior service charges for which may be borne entirely by the city. The cost of the system shall be determined actuarially on the basis of such mortality and service tables as the council shall approve. Any officer or employee of the city at the time of the establishment of such system shall have a reasonable time thereafter to elect the privilege of becoming a member of the system so established. Officers and employees thereafter appointed to any position which has been included in a retirement system by the council shall be required to join the system as a condition of employment. Nothing in this section shall be construed to prevent the council from making appropriations for pensions for or relief of persons retired from the service of the city prior to the establishment of the retirement system authorized herein. If the council shall deem it inadvisable to establish an independent retirement system for the City of Alexandria, it may make arrangements for group insurance for employees or it may affiliate its retirement system with that of the Commonwealth, if permissible under general law, or with that of any other local government in the Commonwealth or any combination thereof. Any pension and retirement system established under this section shall be administered as provided by ordinance. The benefits accrued or accruing to any person under such system shall not be subject to execution, levy, attachment, garnishment or any other process whatsoever nor shall any assignment of such benefits be enforceable in any court. (Acts 1968, ch. 510, § 1; Acts 1983, ch. 314, § 1)