photo by: Mike Yoder

Lawrence City Hall, 6 E. Sixth St., is pictured Thursday, July 7, 2016.

City leaders will soon decide whether to repeal residency rules that require many of the city’s top officials to live in Lawrence, potentially maintaining the requirement only for one position.

As part of its meeting Tuesday, the Lawrence City Commission will consider repealing the residency requirements for all city employees except the city manager, effectively allowing employees in about a dozen high-level positions to live elsewhere. City staff are recommending the changes in part to help the city attract more qualified and diverse candidates for the upcoming recruitment for several department director positions, according to a city staff memo to the commission.

Assistant City Manager Casey Toomay said that the city was preparing to fill the vacant police chief and the IT director positions, and the city’s human resources director is planning to retire in the fall. As the Journal-World has recently reported, an ongoing study that includes an evaluation of the duties of the police department will also help inform the search for the department’s next chief.

The city has about 800 full-time employees. Currently, only department directors and people in the highest level administrative positions are required to live in Lawrence, according to the city’s existing residency policy. Specifically, the policy requires Lawrence residency for the city manager, assistant city managers and all department directors, including the police chief, fire and medical chief, municipal services and operations director, finance director, IT director, parks and recreation director, city attorney’s office director, and the director of planning and development services. The policy requires individuals hired for those positions to establish permanent residency in the city within six months of beginning their positions.

In making its recommendation to repeal the residency requirement for all position but the city manager, city staff cite two of the commitments included in the commission’s most recent strategic plan: equity and inclusion, and engaged and empowered teams. As part of the strategic plan, which is meant to guide the city’s budget and policy decisions, the commission set out specific goals for the city as well as several commitments it would adhere to while it works toward those goals.

Equity and inclusion was an area highlighted by commissioners as they created the new strategic plan, and the memo states that residency requirements can place a burden on people who are not able to access the cultural resources they need to live comfortably in the community, and that removing requirements advances equity by contributing to an inclusive and diverse workforce. The memo goes on to say that removing residency requirements also ensures the city is able to attract and retain a highly qualified and diverse workforce.

The commitment for engaged and empowered teams relates to issues of city staffing and staff advancement. The memo states in part that allowing employees to choose where they live based on what is best for them as individuals shows they are respected and trusted and contributes to a more diverse organizational culture.

The city’s residency requirement also came up in 2018, but at that time the conversation was regarding whether additional city employees, particularly high-level and high salaried positions, should be required to live in Lawrence. A member of the city’s Parks and Recreation Advisory board expressed concern that the money Lawrence residents pay in taxes to support those salaries were not benefiting the Lawrence community in property and sales taxes and that those staff members might be less engaged with the community. Commissioners ultimately received a report about the residency status of all city employees, and upon review did not end up making any changes to the residency requirement.

Toomay said that the only update made to the policy in 2018 was a change to reflect the merger of the public works and utilities departments and the city has not done any updates to the 2018 report about employee residency.

The 2018 report found that though the city had not had a residency requirement for all city employees since 1995, the majority of the staff still lived in Lawrence. According to the report, about 63% of the city’s 1,648 full-time, part-time and temporary employees lived within the city, and 78% lived in Douglas County in 2018. Those percentages decreased for full-time and part-time employees with benefits, with 53% of the 794 employees living within the city in 2018 and 71% living in Douglas County.

The report also found that residency requirements vary among other comparable cities, but that few have the requirement for all employees. Based on a study from 2013, the report concluded that while there are “perceived benefits” to broad residency requirements, they can also be a barrier to hiring the most qualified candidates. The memo to the commission states that McGrath Human Resources Group, the city’s compensation consultant, recently confirmed that residency requirements can be a hindrance to market competitiveness.

The City Commission will convene virtually at 5:45 p.m. Tuesday with limited staff in place at City Hall, 6 E. Sixth St. The city has asked that residents participate in the meeting virtually if they are able to do so. A link to register for the Zoom meeting and directions to submit written public comment are included in the agenda that is available on the city’s website, lawrenceks.org.