By Jacinthia Jones
The Commercial Appeal (Memphis, TN)
Copyright 2007 The Commercial Appeal, Inc.
Faced with a shortage of police officers and paramedics, the Memphis City Council decided Tuesday to relax its mandatory residency requirements in order to attract more recruits.
In separate resolutions, the council voted 9-3 to exempt new police recruits and paramedics from the city’s rule that requires city employees to live inside city limits.
The exemption is only effective for two years and still requires the new employees to reside in Shelby County. Hiring preferences will be given to Memphians.
“We just broke the law,” Councilman Joe Brown declared after the measures were approved. He voted against both, saying that the council was overturning a law already decided by voters.
In a 2004 referendum, city voters approved the residency provisions requiring all new city employees to have a Memphis address. Previously, city workers were allowed to live anywhere inside Shelby County.
City Atty. Sara Hall said Tuesday the referendum gave council members the authority to make exemptions if they desired, though council members said they didn’t recall that.
The police and fire directors had pushed to remove the residency requirements in hopes of increasing their potential pools of candidates.
Police Director Larry Godwin said he had no evidence that repealing the residency requirement would boost his hiring pool, but he said it was worth a try. He said police departments around the country are facing a similar hiring shortage with some cities even offering signing bonuses .
“This isn’t a Memphis problem,” he said.
But Brown didn’t buy it.
“Out of 800,000 citizens, we’re saying we can’t find 150 for the Police Department and maybe 125 for the Fire Department? I find that hard to believe.”
At one point, Brown raised diversity issues, questioning the diversity of suburban police departments whose officers now will be allowed to transfer to Memphis under the change.
“I know what this is about,” he said.
Councilwoman Barbara Swearengen Holt, one of the chief proponents of the residency requirement, was equally dubious. She and Councilman Edmund Ford also opposed repealing the rule.
Holt questioned the “arbitrary” hiring requirements she says have been implemented by the Police Department. In recent years, the division has required two years of college.
Godwin says his department conducts physical exams, looks at the work history, driving records, history of alcohol abuse and misdemeanor arrests.
“We do not waive felonies and I have no intention of waving felonies,” Godwin said.
He said the only rules he’s changed during his watch has been toughening up the shooting accuracy required to be an officer. “I think they need to be able to shoot if they carry a pistol.”
In two other resolutions, the council voted unanimously to lift the residency requirements for the Emergency Management Agency, which is jointly funded with Shelby County government, and for employees of the Bartlett Branch Library, which remains with the city’s library system.