SPRINGFIELD — The City Council approved an ordinance that gives most newly hired municipal employees two years to relocate to Springfield instead of the one year that was previously set in place.
The revised ordinance, which was sponsored by Ward 6 City Councilor Victor Davila and City Council President Michael Fenton, is in response to the notion that department heads are having a tough time retaining new employees because of the previous residency rule, which required new municipal employees to have one year to move to Springfield after their hire date, or else they were terminated by the city.
According to data provided by City Councilor Maria Perez during a Dec. 16 full council meeting, there have been at least 46 resignations over the last five years due to the one-year rule.
The hope is that the new two-year residency rule will ease the burden on many new municipal employees seeking homes in Springfield.
“We felt Springfield was a good place to live, work and raise a family, and we didn’t think it was punitive to require people to live in the city of Springfield,” said At-Large City Councilor Kateri Walsh. “I support residency; I also support changing it to two years.”
The new two-year requirement is retroactive, which means it applies to municipal employees that were hired on or after Sept. 1, 2023.
“We’re asking to go retroactively back because some of those individuals are about to expire or almost may have expired upon the time we have filed this and upon passage,” City Solicitor Stephen Buoniconti said during a Dec. 16 discussion with the council. “And so, we wanted to just be clear about the retroactivity, and we went back a little bit longer to be sure to capture some of those individuals.”
A major point of discussion across multiple meetings was the possibility of implementing a three-year sunset clause within the new ordinance; a proposal set forth by At-Large City Councilor Jose Delgado.
The amendment, which was initially adopted during the Dec. 16 meeting, essentially meant that the 24-month residency requirement, if passed, would be in effect until Sept. 1, 2026, and then the ordinance would revert back to the current one-year requirement, and the council would revisit to see which requirement is more necessary.
Delgado stated across multiple meetings that he wanted to be protective of the residency requirement and argued that the city’s economic climate could always change over time.
“We’re in a snapshot in time in terms of having trouble in hiring people, and so my idea was I understand the kind of economics of today might not be the same economics three four years from now,” Delgado said during the Feb. 10 meeting.
The clause was initially voted in during the Dec. 16 meeting, but the majority of the council voted to take it out during the Feb. 10 meeting after Bill Mahoney, director of Human Resources and Labor Relations, spoke to the council about the confusing and cumbersome aspects of such a clause.
“Without the sunset provision the council still retains its power and authority to amend this at any time,” Mahoney said. “The question is whether or not there was a necessity [for a clause] just based on that.”
The council voted in favor of the two-year residency requirement by a tally of 8-3, with Delgado, City Councilor Sean Curran and City Council Vice President Tracye Whitfield all voting no.
Whitfield and Delgado felt that the residency requirement was only one part of the equation for why the city is finding it difficult to retain city employees. They argued that the city should develop more internal workforce development programs to help current Springfield residents and graduating students land some of these municipal jobs that the city oftentimes has trouble filling.
“We should look at ways to better support the people that live in Springfield and give them internal opportunities to move around city departments and get into some type of apprenticeship program and some of these hard to hire positions,” Whitfield said.
Delgado, meanwhile, wondered why the city could not use funds to help Springfield youth find opportunities for growth in some high-need areas in the city.
“We have a school system that has 25,000 students, and we’re graduating many of them every day,” Delgado said. “What are we doing to tap into our youth to bring them home?”
Later in her remarks, Whitfield also expressed concern about language in the new ordinance that ostensibly made it so people receiving a promotion within the two-year residency requirement timeframe would be allowed additional time to find a home in Springfield.
Davila, who voted yes for the extended residency requirement, did not interpret the language that way.
“I don’t know what has happened in the past, but the expectation is, when you get hired you get two years,” Davila said. “It’s two years; period.”
