BILL WOULD KILL RESIDENCY RULES FOR CITY WORKERS

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, February 9, 1993                   TAG: 9302090302
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: TONY WHARTON and JOEL TURNER STAFF WRITERS
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium
BILL WOULD KILL RESIDENCY RULES FOR CITY WORKERS
The General Assembly could kill proposals in Roanoke, Norfolk and Richmond to require city workers to live in the city.
A pending bill would strip cities of the power to make employees live in the municipality where they work. The legislation is sponsored by state Sen. Joseph Benedetti, a Richmond Republican.
The Senate could approve the bill today. It then would go to the House of Delegates for consideration.
Roanoke City Councilman William White has been working on a residency requirement for Roanoke employees for almost a year.
He thinks that all top city officials, the city manager's directors and departmental managers should reside in the city. And he thinks at least 60 percent of city police officers and firefighters also should live in the city.
Now, about two-thirds of Roanoke's firefighters and police officers live outside the city.
White said that in fairness to taxpayers who pay the salaries and fringe benefits, city employees should be willing to live in the city.
White's proposal would apply only to future employees, he said. No current workers would be required to move.
He has not yet made a formal proposal to City Council because of the press of other issues.
Richmond is working on a similar proposal. Employee complaints there prompted Benedetti to introduce the bill, legislative aide Ozell Briggs said.
"He got an awful lot of requests from these employees," Briggs said. "He feels they are his constituents as much as the city is."
Briggs said Richmond has opposed Benedetti's bill. At first, the opposition appeared to have killed the bill last week, when a Senate committee voted to postpone consideration indefinitely. But in a quickly assembled committee meeting late last week, Benedetti persuaded members to send the bill to the full Senate for a vote.

by Archana Subramaniam by CNB