photo by: Journal-World Photo Illustration

Lawrence Journal-World Editorial

The city of Lawrence should seek to hire the best employees it can regardless of where they live. Policies that require city employees, including top administrators, to live in the city are anachronistic and unnecessary.

The city has about 750 full-time employees. Current policy requires department directors and people in the highest level administrative positions to live in Lawrence. The policy requires the city manager, assistant city managers, police chief, fire chief and all department directors to establish permanent residency in the city within six months of beginning their positions.

At the City Commission meeting last week, resident John Blazek voiced concerns about other city administrators who live outside Lawrence. Blazek became aware of the administrators’ residency through his service on the city’s Parks and Recreation Advisory Board

“That means that salary those people are paid is being taken outside of Lawrence, spent on homes, groceries, cars, gas and taxes in other communities,” Blazek said.

Blazek added that nonresidents of the city aren’t as engaged in the community and thus not as vested in its quality of life.

The concerns resonated with city commissioners, who agreed to look at the city’s residency requirement further. Commissioner Leslie Soden asked city staff to provide options for changing the residency requirement.

Here’s a thought: Do away with the residency requirement for everyone, including the city manager.

With its proximity to the Kansas City suburbs to the east and Topeka to the west, Lawrence benefits greatly from top executives who reside in Lawrence and commute to other communities for work. Imagine the negative impact on Lawrence if the state of Kansas required all of its employees to live in Topeka.

Perhaps a case could be made that city services would be better if all city administrators were also required to be users of those services. But it seems unlikely. Mostly, residency requirements seem to be a matter of image over substance; it looks better if Lawrence’s city manager actually resides in Lawrence.

But beyond public perception, does requiring a city manager, public works director, finance director, etc., to live in Lawrence really help Lawrence? Probably not.

City Manager Tom Markus will be leaving his position in a few months. Markus has done a terrific job for the city, particularly in identifying and correcting broken processes. City commissioners have their hands full identifying and hiring a strong replacement, and the last thing they need to worry about is where the next city manager will live.

The same goes for other positions in the city. Hire good people. Let them live where they want.