Hitting Too Close to Home

Debates about whether employees of local governments should live in the municipalities they serve have been around for a long time. In fact, Governing ran an article on residency requirements when I was 12. Alan Ehrenhalt weighed in on the subject in 2000. Hurricane Katrina has reinvigorated the debate, however, by leading some to believe first responders are most effective if they live in the jurisdiction that employees them.

In particular, the San Francisco Examiner reported last week that in Katrina's wake California governments are fretting that too many first responders live out of town. The consensus among California local officials seems to be that if police and firefighters live in town, their response to disasters will be quicker and better.

Yet if anything Katrina seems to teach the opposite lesson. As the Chicago Tribune reported in a chilling article, Katrina has devastated first responders, leading many to quit and driving at least two to suicide. Part of the problem, according to a police official, is that cops lost homes and loved ones, just like other city residents.

Encouraging or forcing municipal employees to reside within city limits therefore presents a substantial trade-off in times of crisis. Some speed may be gained, but first responders are more likely to be victims of the very disaster they are trying to remedy.