Jefferson City Council to consider new residency requirements

Bill would leave policy to department directors

The Jefferson City Council will consider changes to the city's residency requirements to give department directors flexibility to create their own policies.

At the Council Committee on Administration meeting Wednesday, the committee brought back a proposal from 4th Ward Councilman Glen Costales that was presented last month. The proposal would change the existing city code to give department directors discretion over whether their employees need to live within a set distance from the city.

Currently, the code requires all full-time employees to live within 25 miles of city limits and have a response time of within 30 minutes.

The proposed bill would eliminate that requirement and instead state "residency may be considered when hiring or retaining employees if such residency affects the employees' ability to perform all the responsibilities of the position, including but not limited to status as an on-call employee or required to respond to an emergency. The department director may adopt policies for residency to maximize the value of the individual positions."

City Attorney Drew Hilpert said staff had met to discuss the proposal and supported the change. The committee then voted unanimously to move the bill forward to be considered by the full City Council.

Also brought back from last month's meeting was a proposal from 3rd Ward Councilman Ken Hussey to change the City Charter concerning term limits for council members. Currently, the charter states a council person can not serve more than eight years on the council - meaning after serving four, two-year terms a person is barred from serving on the City Council again.

The term limits were added to the charter after voters approved the change in 1993. Previously, there were no term limits for the City Council.

Hussey's proposal would eliminate the lifetime ban and instead place a requirement for a break from office of at least two years after four consecutive terms before being eligible to serve again.

Because the proposal would require a change to the City Charter, it would have to go to a public vote. Hussey said Wednesday that he has had decent feedback on the proposal in the last month, and he would like to bring the issue back to the committee in September, when it can it be considered as an option for the April 2017 ballot.