Residency Requirement Removed With Administrative Action

By VERNON ROBISON

The Progress

A recent administrative change to Mesquite’s personnel policy has lifted a requirement for the top executives of city departments to reside within the city limits. This channge promises to allow latitude to recruit outside of the community for those top positions without candidates being required to move to Mesquite and become local residents.

The change applies to the positions of City Clerk, Finance Director, City Attorney, Deputy City Manager, Police Chief and the Chief of Mesquite Fire and Rescue. The change will not apply to the role of City Manager which will still require residence in the City.

This policy change was made earlier this month by Interim City Manager Andy Barton.

At a City Council meeting held Tuesday, July 13, Barton explained that, as a personnel issue, changing this policy is within his role of responsibility without the matter formally being heard by the council. However, council members were informally polled on the matter before the action was taken, Barton said.

“I did ask the council for input on this sensitive issue, but the decision ultimately was mine to make,” Barton said. “However, the city attorney has informed me that my decision can be easily over-ridden by the council if they so wish.”

Barton pointed out that a residency requirement for all other city staff had been lifted in April of 2019 by ordinance.

“I eliminated the residency requirement for executive level staff because it limited both the quantity and quality of applicants for these various positions,” Barton said. “I didn’t want to limit my options for executive recruitment and this requirement did exactly that.”

The action evoked a discussion among council members on the subject during the Council Comment portion of the meeting last week.

Council member Brian Wursten said that the change had troubled him.
“I have been big on residency (requirements),” Wursten said. “It is something that is near and dear to me. Our department heads should be as engaged in Mesquite as anybody that lives here. For us to tell them that they don’t have to live here really bothers me.”

“We are sending the good jobs out of town,” Wursten added. “Our tax dollars are leaving the city with them. And the ties to the community for department heads will no longer be as strong as it would be if they live here.”

Wursten said that he had proposed a motion in the council’s Tech Review meeting the week before to put the item on the agenda for discussion in a full council meeting. But the motion had not received a second.

“So it is obvious that I am the only person that this seems to be an issue for,” Wursten said. “I was told that I could put it on the agenda myself. But to what end? Nobody else on the council wants to have these key people be tied in to the city and be committed and engaged enough to live here.”

Wursten made a plea to members of the public concerned about these things to write directly to members of city council to express that concern. “Send them a note if it bothers you,” he said.

Other members of council also weighed in on the issue during the meeting, expressing a different viewpoint.
“One of the reasons we remove some of the restrictions is because we want the best person for the job, not somebody who is being forced to live here,” said councilwoman Sandra Ramaker. kowski pointed out that merely owning a house in the community didn’t necessarily mean that a person is fully engaged in the community.

“I value the decision-making of our department heads based on the engagement in what they are doing, not just because they are living in this area,” Dutkowski said. “I’d rather have the most qualified person in the role; someone who is going to make decisions based on what is best for Mesquite.”

Councilman George Gault recalled that a few years ago the city had experienced a difficult time in finding qualified police officers to join the local force.

“That is what convinced me that those (residency) requirements should be lifted,” Gault said. “We want to bring qualified professionals in and deepen our work staffs, especially on public safety officers. And I don’t think that living somewhere else decreases one’s commitment to the job or the professionalism that you take to the job.”

Discussion on the issue extended into the public comment period toward the end of the meeting.

Steve Clutterham recalled a time when the residency requirement was used by former city council members to terminate an executive staff members that they did not like for other reasons. Clutterham said that this would be unacceptable.

“The last thing I ever want to see again in the city is using residency requirement as an excuse to get rid of somebody they don’t like,” Clutterham said. “It was nonsense then and it is nonsense now. If we lived in a perfect world, every city employee should live here. But we don’t. There are not that many qualified people living here it is that simple. We have to go outside, especially to hire key people.”

In another comment, local real estate agent Karen Fielding said she had found it odd that Mesquite Police Chief MaQuade Chesley had listed his residence for sale back on May 21, when the residency requirement had only been removed about two weeks ago.

“So the math, the dates; they don’t really add up,” Fielding said. “It seems like somehow, somewhere, somebody all knew that this was going to happen long beforehand.”

But Chesley addressed this a few moments later in a comment of his own.
“I apparently don’t have a right to put up a property (for sale) without it being brought up in city council,” Chesley said. “Do you know about any other properties that I have purchased in Mesquite? Do you know my living circumstances? If you have questions, I’d be happy to answer them offline. But not in front of the whole world to know what is going on in my private life.”

Chesley stated that police officers do not always have to reside in the neighborhoods they work to be devoted to those areas.
“We have officers that live in this community and all around the region,” Chesley said. “But I’ll tell you, the officers that live here are great officers and the officers that don’t live here are just as invested and just as great. That is not what makes an officer good or not good.”