THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, January 13, 1995 TAG: 9501120156
SECTION: PORTSMOUTH CURRENTS PAGE: 02 EDITION: FINAL
COLUMN: Ida Kay's Portsmouth
SOURCE: Ida Kay Jordan
LENGTH: Medium: 88 lines
Why is it important for city employees to live here?
A lot of people, including many of the employees, don't think it is an issue.
A news story reported that Michael Stephens, the city's new public relations director, will move from Virginia Beach to Portsmouth in the near future. Some did not see that as important.
But, Stephens told me, he sees living in Portsmouth as imperative if he is going to do his job well.
``I need to be here,'' he said. ``I need to know what Portsmouth is doing.''
Many people, however, do not feel that need. Makes you wonder how serious they are about their jobs, doesn't it?
Basically, it is illegal to require a person to move here in connection with being hired for a city job.
It won't stand up in court, City Attorney Stuart Katz said. In the past, courts have ruled that a residency requirement is a violation of personal rights.
Well, that might be true. But, on the other hand, what about the rights of taxpayers who fund the salaries of city employees. Do we not have a right to make certain requirements of employees?
The city manager apparently has a tacit agreement with department heads that they will live within the city. That involves only about 34 of 1,805 full-time city employees. In addition, the council's four employees - city clerk, city assessor, city attorney and city manager - are required to live in town and, of course, the treasurer and commissioner of revenue, who must run for their offices.
Of 1,805 full-time employees, excluding school employees, 691 or 38.3 percent live in other cities.
It's interesting to make random checks and see who does not live here. Mostly those who move out or never move in are those who are moving up. About the time they get to about $30,000 a year, those who live here get itchy feet and many move to another city.
They are the very people we need to keep in Portsmouth - young, educated, upward bound, family people. We need them to support the schools and make demands when their children are not getting the education they expect. We need them volunteering in our neighborhoods and paying taxes on their property to the city.
Nothing makes a tax-paying citizen angrier than standing on Crawford Street around 5 p.m. and watching city employees wheel into the tunnel or up onto Interstate 264 headed home to elsewhere.
In some ways, living in one place and working in another makes life easier. By the time you get home from work, it's too late or you're too tired to get out and do civic work. That way you don't have to be responsible for anything.
Living and working in the same town makes life more interesting, even if it becomes complicated.
You get to know people. You know them on the street, in restaurants, at grocery stores. Most people eventually get involved in one project or another, frequently through the schools or civic leagues.
I wonder how people working for the city can make the right decisions without intimate knowledge of the city and its residents, knowledge that can be gathered only by being around.
Some people contend that only top city employees make decisions, but I believe people at a variety of levels make choices every day that could affect me and my pocketbook. If they live somewhere else by choice, I'm not sure they have any interest at all in how their decisions affect Portsmouth.
For a number of years, I covered City Hall in Chesapeake while living and working in Portsmouth. I spent a lot of time driving back and forth to Chesapeake at least once a day - and sometimes twice, often at 2 or 3 a.m.
Because I found it impossible to limit my hours to 40 hours weekly, I was exhausted all the time. I always felt I was missing something in Chesapeake and I certainly was not a very good citizen of Portsmouth during those years. I didn't do a bad job of covering Chesapeake, but I would have done a lot better job had I had lived there.
The way I felt then probably describes the some 700 city employees who live elsewhere. But there is a difference: They are getting paid with tax dollars, and I was getting paid by a private company.
Public employees who live elsewhere don't have a vested interest in Portsmouth. They make demands for salaries and retirement but they aren't willing to put back any of their time or money to make Portsmouth better. MEMO: Agree? Disagree? The Currents would like to hear from you. Send your
thoughts to The Currents, 307 County Street, Suite 100, Portsmouth, Va.,
23704-3702, or fax us at 446-2607. by CNB