Massachusetts City Takes Step Back From Residency Law

From The Enterprise, December 6

BROCKTON, MA – The city's residency rule took a big hit Monday when the firefighters and police patrolmen unions approved new contracts allowing them to move out of the city after seven years.

The Brockton Patrolmen's Association voted, 117-13, to approve the contract during voting on Monday.

The firefighters union approved their contract by a 97 percent margin, said union president Archibald Gormley Jr., who did not have an exact tally.

"It has been a long battle for everyone," Gormley said.

Mayor John T. Yunits Jr., who leaves office on Jan. 2, said this morning the two unions would be signing the contracts today.

Under the nearly identical agreements, the two unions each approved two contracts:

A one-year pact with no pay raise that would allow union members to move out of the city after seven years. The residency change is handled in a memorandum of agreement in the one-year pact, Gormley said.

The second contract, a three-year deal with pay raises, that picks up after the one-year deal.

The one-year agreement will not require City Council approval because it does not involve the appropriation of any money. Many councilors have been against approving a contract easing the residency rule.

The portion of the contract that includes pay hikes will go before the City Council, needing eight votes to pass.

In 1991, voters in a non-binding referendum voted for the residency requirement by a 3-1 margin.

The City Council enacted it the next year.

The residency rule has been controversial since the beginning, but this fall the debate became heated as the firefighters union rallied publicly — and loudly, at some demonstrations — against it.

The residency rule was also a campaign issue in city elections, both two years ago and again in November.

Under the rule, every person first hired by the city on or after Jan. 1, 1992, has to establish residency within one year. Teachers are exempt under state law.

The new contracts weakening the residency requirement supercede the city ordinance.

There are 152 members of the Brockton Patrolmen's Association and 206 members of the Brockton Fire Fighters Local 144.

Antonio Randolph, president of the Brockton Patrolmen's Association, said this morning the residency portion of the police contract would take effect on Jan. 1, 2006. It would affect upwards of 100 of the 152 union members, he said.

The one-year contract calls for a zero percent raise and allows officers to move out of the city after seven years.

The second contract calls for a total 8 percent raise over three years.

The three-year contract includes a 2 percent raise in the first year, a half-percent in the first six months of the second year followed by another half-percent.

The third year of that contract calls for a 2 percent raise for the first six months, followed by a 1 percent in the last six months of the pact.

In the police contract, there are also increases in other areas of the three-year contract that would bring the total pay hike over the course of the contract to 8 percent. Police union contracts provide incentives and payments for education, uniform allowances, firearms work and other areas.

The firefighters' contract mirrors that approved by the patrolmen's union, Gormley said today.

Gormley said the firefighters union agreed to wage concessions because it understood "dire straits" the city is facing financially in the future.

There are also incentives in the firefighters' contract, he said.

It remained unclear this morning how the residency clause would affect the only two police supervisors on the department who were hired after the city insisted city workers live in Brockton.

The police supervisors union which represents sergeants, lieutenants and captains — has yet to approve a contract.