Effort surfaces in PB to make new workers live in city limits

Monday, February 17, 2014

PINE BLUFF - Pine Bluff aldermen are set to decide Tuesday whether newly hired city employees should be required to live within the city limits.

The sponsors of a new ordinance - Aldermen Glen Brown, George Stepps and Thelma Walker - say it boils down to economics.

Because city employees are paid “in significant part by taxes generated by economic activity within the city,” they should “do their part in increasing such activity by residing within the corporate limits of the city,” their proposal reads.

“The city is experiencing an eroding tax base which affects the ability of city government to offer needed services,” it says.

The proposed ordinance would not apply to current city employees. New employees hired by the city would have 30 days to establish residency after they are hired, according to the proposal.

This is at least the third time the issue of where city employees live has gone before the City Council.

The council usually meets Mondays but moved this week’s meeting because of the holiday for George Washington’s Birthday and Daisy Gatson Bates Day.

In June, aldermen approved an ordinance requiring the city’s department heads to live within 12 miles of the city limits.

Also in June, the City Council rejected a proposal by Alderman Steven Mays to require city employees who live outside of Pine Bluff to pay 3 percent of their gross wages as a “privilege fee.”

Mays said the money would have been put into a fund to be used for “promotion of youth employment and prevention of juvenile crime and delinquency for youths aged 13-18.”

Officials with the city’s Human Resources Department said they could not readily access information about how many city employees live outside Pine Bluff, but Stepps said his research showed that “around 100” Police and Fire department workers don’t live in the city.

In at least six cities across the state similar in size to Pine Bluff - Conway, Fayetteville, Jonesboro, North Little Rock, Rogers and Springdale - city employees are not required to live within the city limits.

Brown said any employee living outside Pine Bluff’s city limits “is money the city loses. We need every person we can get in Pine Bluff. The department heads make the bulk of the city salaries, and that’s a lot of money that needs to be kept here in Pine Bluff.”

Pine Bluff Mayor Debe Hollingsworth said limiting where employees live would “severely limit the amount of quality candidates we could attract” when searching for potential job candidates.

“We pay these folks to do a service for the city,” Hollingsworth said. “We cannot dictate where that person lives. We have to loosen restrictions, or we won’t find qualified candidates to fill positions.”

Alderman Bill Brumett echoed the mayor’s thoughts, saying that city employees should have “the freedom to live wherever they choose.”

Arkansas, Pages 7 on 02/17/2014