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I am a City of Milwaukee employee subject to the residency requirement and I wholeheartedly support it. Quite simply, I support it because it promotes accountable and effective government. Here are some more details on why I believe the residency requirement should remain intact:
- Accountability: Employees are more likely to be better stewards of tax dollars when it is their own tax dollars being used on projects or paying their salary. I’ve worked for another municipality and can attest to the lack of concern over wasted tax dollars that employees who don’t live in that city can have.
- Commitment, Loyalty and Pride: In an age where public employees are vilified on a daily basis, an effective employee can’t just be working for a paycheck. The taxpayers deserve someone who is loyal to and has pride in the City that employees them. Would we expect the Packers to hire a diehard Bears fan?
- Safety: In the case of an emergency, whether a blizzard, major fire or worse, it is important that public employees can quickly and safely get to work to ensure the safety of the pubic, as we all expect.
- Respect: Will a resident respect a police officer who doesn’t live in the City? Will an elected official have confidence in a non-resident employee’s decision, who may not always have the best interest of the City in mind?
- Qualified: City residents are better qualified to solve problems facing the City because they live among the citizens, talk to their neighbors and experience the City firsthand. When something bad happens in the City, it impacts them just like everyone else. To be an effective employee, understanding the city you work for is very important.
- Local Control: The City should have control over how and where their tax dollars are spent, a large proportion of which are employee salaries and benefits. If the City does not feel they are able to find qualified employees, it should be their decision to lift this requirement. This should not be something decided by the State of Wisconsin.
In addition to the above reasons, one should also consider the impacts that lifting residency will have on neighborhood stability and tax base in a City consistently ranked one of the poorest in the nation. Losing taxpayer funded middle class residents would be an unnecessary setback to the City of Milwaukee and does nothing to solve the State of Wisconsin’s budget crisis.
Dan Casanova
Nicely put, Dan.
ReplyDeleteI agree. I'm an MPS teacher, and dread what will happen if residency is lifted. I care deeply about this city and about my students. I know I'd love my students no matter where I lived, but I think my civic concern would be far less if I were a citizen of a suburb. I believe the investment I feel for Milwaukee is a direct result of living here, owning a home here, and paying taxes here. There are a lot of people who disagree, but I think that there is a far bigger picture than, "I want to be able to decide where I live." I knowingly signed a contract, and I had the entire city to choose from. I don't feel restricted at all.
ReplyDeleteYou make some excellent points, Dan. I live in Waukesha, where we also have a residency requirement. . . . except that it has been excepted for Water Utility Manager Dan Duchniak, who lives in Oak Creek, and his #2 man, Nancy Quirk, from Madison. These are two of the four people leading the charge to bring water from Lake Michigan, over the concerns of many local people. It's disconcerting to think that it won't be THEIR water quality that will suffer, it won't be THEIR water utility rates that will skyrocket, it won't be THEIR children's future stuck paying for this expensive and unnecessary system, it won't be THEIR rivers and marshes degraded, or it won't be THEIR open spaces stuffed with every cheap, hastily built cookie-cutter house that Bielinski Brothers can throw up to expand the tax base.
ReplyDeleteOthers 'helping' Waukesha obtain a Lake Michigan diverson are Bill McClenahan of the lobbying firm of Schreiber and Assoc in Madison, Mike D'Amato, formerly an advocate for your city, now 'advocating' for Waukesha, the most well-compensated public employees of all--and you oughtta see THOSE perks!--at SEWRPC, and the top experts at converting public taxpayer dollars to private income at Ruekert and Mielke. Talk about your piggies slopping it up at the public trough.
Thank you, Dan. You truly are a dedicated city of Milwaukee employee and a devoted neighbor.
ReplyDeleteWe appreciate you.