Bill Reynolds, R-Ward 5, speaks on his suggestion to create a local law eliminating the residency requirements for city officers, as currently stated in the city charter. P-J photo by Sara Holthouse

With officer positions in the city such as fire chief soon to become open positions that the city will be looking to fill, the city council has held some discussion regarding the possibility of changing the charter to remove the requirement that officers in the city need to live in the city.

The discussion was during Monday’s work session when a local law was brought before the council by Councilman Bill Reynolds, R-Ward 5, which looks to eliminate the residency requirement for city officers. Currently Section 10, Subsection B of the city charter requires everyone in an officer position to live in Jamestown, or be willing to move to the city if they do not when appointed. The change would ask that they live in either Chautauqua County or an adjoining county in New York State, with preference given to city residents.

“I started looking into this because we heard that we may have some retirements coming up and going through the list, there’s 11 appointed officials that would be considered under this law currently,” Reynolds said. “As we know our fire chief is retiring, and that will probably be the first one. So I started digging a little more into informal attorney general rulings on how different municipalities across the state handle certain situations where they can’t find the right person to take that position, any position of those 11, where they weren’t able to find anyone living in the city.”

Reynolds said in that case municipalities will utilize Municipal Home Rule or have a charter change. This is something Reynolds said he has familiarity with, from being a town supervisor many years ago and at that time being unable to find a town attorney.

“With these 11 positions and the likelihood of maybe not having the best qualified person living in the city, this gives the administration, I believe, some latitude in having the right candidate if you would, or the most qualified candidate be allowed to be appointed,” Reynolds said. “Again, for what’s happening right now we might not need this local law, but as time goes on it behooves us to be able to get a wider and broader breadth of solid candidates for these positions.”

Changing the city charter would also make it so the council would not have to make a Municipal Home Rule for every position as it comes up, which Reynolds said would need to be brought before the state legislature each time. Reynolds noted that he knew many people prefer having people in these positions live in the city, but that the city also has a decreasing population. Additionally, several non-appointed officials live outside the city.

“You love the city or you don’t, and I just think that we’re shorting ourselves if we don’t expand the geographical residency requirement to what civil service uses in all likelihood, the county you live in and the adjoining counties of that county, which is Erie and Cattaraugus County,” Reynolds said.

It was noted that Municipal Home Rule already is applied on a case by case basis in Jamestown, which is when the mayor would recommend a candidate that lives outside the city and then it would be voted on by the council and for some positions it would be sent to the state legislature.

“The discussion has come up many times about residency requirements, not only for employees but obviously department heads and there’s people that have strong feelings about it,” Council President Tony Dolce said. “I certainly understand it is a challenge sometimes, particularly with some of the department heads that require certain titles, qualifications, licensing. It does become a challenge, and I also am leery. I want to look at is there another way to word it to protect the integrity of the whole idea of having these rather large salaries compared to city employees by giving them the opportunity to not be residents of the city of Jamestown.”

Dolce said personally as a resident and taxpayer in the city he has strong feelings on the issue, and that they would want people in these positions to live, work and invest in the city and be a part of the community. He said he is not opposed to looking at alternatives but that he did not want to see in multiple years down the road all 11 department heads living outside the city.

Reynolds added that another factor is that there is a long amount of time for people to sell their house and move to the city when appointed. Dolce suggested taking time to look things over and ask questions to the mayor or corporation council, adding that there is no urgency to the matter but that maybe they could come up with a compromise or something better than what they currently have, or maybe find that what they currently have is the best product.

A hypothetical question was brought up about if a candidate lived outside the state and doing a nationwide search if that ended up being needed, along with some legal questions and some other dialogue.

Jeff Russell, R-At Large, said he has always been an advocate for all police officers and firefighters to live in the city, specifically in regards to salary to people who do not pay taxes in the city, but added that he shares some of the same concerns as Reynolds. He said he did not want to see a lot of acting positions need to be made or have something that has happened in the past where someone rented a house in the city but then lived outside it happen again.

“From the police side of things, there are times where there are critical incidents going on,” Russell said. “Let’s just say an active shooter situation or something, emergencies are happening right now. To have a police chief that’s living half an hour away that needs to respond to a critical incident, and they have to drive half an hour into the city because they’re living somewhere else, that just doesn’t work.”

Dolce suggested council members continue to think and talk about things in regards to this idea. In regard to deputy fire chief Matthew Coon’s impending retirement on May 9, Mayor Kim Ecklund said over a dozen applicants for the position have been received so far. She said the current position very clearly states that they need to live in the city or will be required to move to the city after being appointed. The application will be posted for around one more week, and interviews will begin towards the end of the month. Ecklund said there are some very qualified candidates among the received resumes. It was noted that only a few individuals in Chautauqua County are fully qualified for the position, and Ecklund said the resumes have come from all over, including New York, Pennsylvania and Florida, along with in-town people.

“Obviously in that dozen there are a few that aren’t qualified, but I will tell you there are some very qualified candidates,” Ecklund said. “Whether they just sent it, or whether they sent it with the full intention to interview and come here, we’ll find out, but I’m confident that some of them did.”