Patrick Yeagle
The Illinois Times
Future city employees will have to live inside Springfield under an ordinance passed Tuesday by the city council.
The controversial issue created a split among some unions, with police, fire and lineman unions opposing the measure and 15 other unions already adopting residency requirements in their contracts. The new ordinance also has potential to affect the city’s minority recruitment efforts when it takes effect next year.
Springfield Mayor Jim Langfelder proposed the ordinance, making good on a campaign promise and negotiating with several unions to gain support before bringing the idea to the city council. The main bargaining units which have not agreed to a residency requirement are the unions covering city police officers, firefighters and linemen at City Water, Light and Power.
Springfield previously had a full residency requirement from 1976 to 2000, when the prior ordinance was repealed. A version of the ordinance remained in effect prior to Tuesday’s vote, requiring certain members of the mayor’s administration to live in the city.
As of June 1, 595 (42 percent) of the city’s 1,414 employees lived outside the city boundaries, according to the mayor’s office. That doesn’t include temporary workers and four regular employees whose places of residence could not be verified. The city’s data shows that nearly 58 percent of Springfield firefighters and 38 percent of police officers live outside the city boundaries.
The ordinance passed Tuesday requires all employees hired after Jan. 1, 2017, to live within the city limits or move here within 12 months of being hired. Existing employees who already live outside the city would not be required to move. The council voted to amend the mayor’s original proposal by creating a process for employees to obtain a waiver in case of hardship. Such employees would have to prove the hardship each year and face a public vote by the city council.
Voting in favor of the amended ordinance were Ward 2 Ald. Herman Senor, Ward 3 Ald. Doris Turner, Ward 4 Ald. John Fulgenzi, Ward 5 Ald. Aaron Proctor, Ward 7 Ald. Joe McMenamin and Ward 9 Ald. Jim Donelan. Four aldermen voted against the ordinance: Ward 1 Ald. Chuck Redpath, Ward 6 Ald. Cory Jobe, Ward 8 Ald. Kris Theilen and Ward 10 Ald. Ralph Hanauer.
Several people spoke regarding the ordinance prior to the vote just before 9 p.m., including residents of Springfield who work for the city, employees who live outside the city, past employees who chose to remain in Springfield, a former alderman and two union representatives with opposing views.
Ultimately, Langfelder’s insistence on not “watering down” his original plan prevailed, defeating two amendments that would have enlarged the allowable residency area – one to include all of Sangamon County and another to include a mile-and-a-half swath around the city boundaries.
A 2012 voter referendum showed Springfield residents favor a residency requirement 59 percent to 41 percent. More than 50,000 people weighed in on the question, and every ward except Ward 1 (Redpath) voted in support of residency. Ward 1 mostly covers the area south of Stevenson Drive and east of Sixth Street, including Lake Springfield and the University of Illinois Springfield.
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Ernesto Johnson serves as co-chairman of the civic engagement task force with the Faith Coalition for the Common Good. A Springfield resident of 40 years, Johnson says the city’s police and fire presence used to be more visible when those employees all lived in the city, providing better relationships between public servants and the public. Johnson says the residency requirement will strengthen neighborhoods, create more job opportunities for Springfield residents and improve the city’s economy.
“Nobody’s telling you where to work; it’s just a job requirement,” he said. “You can still have your fishing cabin in the country, but you need to spend the majority of your time living in the city.”
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Joe McMenamin for Ward 7 