Ward 7 Alderman Joe McMenamin on Wednesday announced a ramped up effort to educate residents on the benefit of a residency requirement for future city employees.
Springfield Citizens for Residency will hold a news conference Thursday at noon at Municipal Center West to help kick off a more visible education campaign. McMenamin is spearheading an effort to get residents to vote in favor of a residency requirement this November.
McMenamin says approximately 40,000 pamphlets will be disbursed between now and election day.
The City of Springfield used to have a residency requirement for its employees, but it was discontinued in 2000. Since then, proponents of reinstating the requirement claim 500 employees and their families have moved out of the city, negatively affecting the tax base.
Opponents of such a measure counter that it's not up to the city to decide where its employees can or can't live, and they don't believe someone who lives in Jerome or Chatham, for example, cares any less about their job than someone who lives on the Historic West Side.
The referendum on the November ballot would be merely advisory. It's unclear if the city council will act on the outcome.
(posted 1:34 p.m. 10/10/2012 by Alex Degman)