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Residency requirement hearing

Mayor Nutter wants to relax the residency requirement for almost all city employees, and a bill to do just that will be tested today [Wednesday] in a City Council hearing.
Some unions are expected to oppose Councilman James Kenney's bill that would only require that new hires move into the city within six months of their appointment -- current rules require that candidates live in the city for a full year before being hired.
Nutter has already put this policy in place for the police department, but he wants it to apply to all employees, and supports Kenney's bill (Mayor John F. Street vetoed such a bill in 2001.
Kenney's bill would exempt all but 766 of the city's 23,767 civil service workers. The hearing before the Committee on Labor and Civil Service begins at 11:30 a.m.

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Comments (7)

Anonymous:

About time the city revised the residency requirement so that it actually makes sense and allows Philadelphia to have a truly competitive hiring process for the best and brightest!

Anonymous:

You apply for a civil service job that does not require you reside in our city, basically you have no idea what the city is about. You pass the test, interview and get hired. They give you 6mos-1year to move into the city. You receive the specialized training from the department that you have been hired for. You then decide that the city is not for you, you either resign or are dismissed.
No big deal except we still have an open position that we have paid for and have to do the whole thing over again. What if the individual has no intent on staying with the city but they just want training and a resume builder? If you don't live here, why should you be entitled to a job provided by us the taxpayers of Philadelphia? Move here first and show us that you intend to live here prior to employment. Gives me a little comfort knowing that you have an interest in the city.

Anonymous:

It's time to move into the 21st century and modernize the residency requirement. It would bring in new residents and tax revenues to Philadelphia. Only an idiot like Jannie Blackwell would oppose such a common sense change.

Competition is a good thing; it will help us hire the best and the brightest. Where they are from is irrelevant.

We shouldn't cater to old (no) school idiots who strive for mediocrity - we must have high standards and expectations.

Anonymous:

Why have residency requirements at all? It sounds like it is illegal. How can you say that you have to live here if you want to work here? You are holding these people hostage. They are being forced to live in Philadelphia. It is unAmerican. Didn't we pass laws that prohibit such restrictions?

Anonymous:

Philadelphia isn't an American city. It's a Soviet holdover.

Anonymous:

Jannie Blackwell needs to be thrown in jail.

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