Residency Requirement

Chicago. --Seven city cops, a firefighter, a paramedic and two public school teachers live on my city block in Chicago. There's also a streets and sanitation worker who goes nuts with a chain saw on the neighborhood trees. We call him "Edward Scizzorhands."It is an integrated, middle-class neighborhood. It is safe.It is all these things in large part because of Chicago's residency ordinance, which requires people who work for the city to live in the city."If you work here, you can live here.

Renovations of the Columbus School (also known as public school 99) began this week and the developers expect that people will be able to occupy the new affordable housing units there this fall. The $13 million conversion of the school, in Baltimore's South Clifton Park at the northeast corner of the intersection of E. North Ave. and N. Washington St., will create 50 residences for people who make 60 percent or less of the city's area median income, according to a statement by the developers.

Legislation that would clear a legal obstacle preventing NAACP President Kweisi Mfume from running for mayor of Baltimore survived key votes in the General Assembly yesterday and appears headed for passage in coming weeks.The bill would reduce the residency requirement for mayoral candidates from one year to six months, a time frame that would allow Mfume to run in the fall if he follows through with plans to purchase a home in Baltimore.Mfume, a former Baltimore City councilman and member of Congress, lives in Baltimore County.

It's a terrible time for the Anne Arundel County Council to be engaged in a protracted standoff over the replacement of one of its members. The body's prestige was harmed enough by the circumstances that led to the removal of Democrat Daryl Jones, who is currently serving time in federal prison for failing to file income tax returns for several years. It has not been helped by the use of a racial slur by one of the council members during deliberation over Mr. Jones' replacement, and it has further been damaged by the seeming indifference of some members of the Republican majority about whether residents of the 1st District have any representation.

A Baltimore City Council resolution introduced last night calls on Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke to issue an executive order requiring that all new municipal employees live within the city's boundaries.Clinton R. Coleman, spokesman for Mr. Schmoke, said that the mayor "supports the intention of the resolution" and is "working with the city solicitor to work out some legal issues" concerning the proposal.Baltimore currently gives preference in hiring to city residents, Mr. Coleman said. Potential new employees who live outside the city must get a waiver from the mayor before they can be hired, he said.

The Enoch Pratt Free Library's board of trustees voted yesterday to require its members to live in Baltimore, a tactic designed to derail a lawsuit challenging its authority to close neighborhood branches. For years, the trustees' policy required members to live in Baltimore at the time of their appointment, but allowed them to move outside of the city, provided they stayed within the state. A July letter of advice from the state attorney general's office, however, said the library trustees legally must live within the city.

The Annapolis City Council met in closed session Monday night to discuss the residency issues surrounding Alderman Kenneth A. Kirby, who is without a permanent home, but offered no new details on how the city would proceed on the issue. Annapolis Mayor Joshua J. Cohen said the council had a "candid and privileged" discussion with City Attorney Karen Hardwick. Cohen said he instructed Hardwick to draft a memo to address two issues: what the city code and charter say about residency requirements and what role the mayor and council play in determining that those standards are met. He set a two-week deadline.

Highlights in Annapolis today:Senate meets. 10 a.m. Senate chamber.House of Delegates meets. 10 a.m. House chamber.Senate Economic and Environmental Affairs Committee hearing on SB 240, to change the residency requirement for Baltimore mayoral candidates. 1 p.m. Room 200, Senate office building.Pub Date: 2/25/99

If we would just loosen the residency requirement a little, Tony Williams could be mayor of both Deecee and Bawlamer at the same time.Using the surplus to pay off the debt is so obvious Congress will never do it.Investing Social Security funds in the stock market is a neat idea as long as the market goes up.First ballroom dancing. Now bribery is an Olympic sport.Pub Date: 1/22/99

A group of lawmakers is preparing to introduce legislation in the General Assembly that would change the residency requirement for mayoral candidates in Baltimore as part of an effort to induce NAACP President Kweisi Mfume to enter the race this year.Mfume, who has owned a home in Catonsville in Baltimore County since January 1995, appears not to meet the legal requirement that a mayoral candidate "be a resident of the city" for one year before the November election.While Mfume has said he will not be a candidate, the legislation being prepared would undo a key obstacle, should he change his mind, said Del. Howard P. Rawlings, a Baltimore Democrat involved in drafting the legislation.

The Annapolis City Council met in closed session Monday night to discuss the residency issues surrounding Alderman Kenneth A. Kirby, who is without a permanent home, but offered no new details on how the city would proceed on the issue. Annapolis Mayor Joshua J. Cohen said the council had a "candid and privileged" discussion with City Attorney Karen Hardwick. Cohen said he instructed Hardwick to draft a memo to address two issues: what the city code and charter say about residency requirements and what role the mayor and council play in determining that those standards are met. He set a two-week deadline.

Does Otis Rolley actually think that he would have the right to dictate where city employees may live as our next mayor? Imagine my horror when I recently read that Mr. Rolley's plan to rebuild government includes a requirement for all new and/or promoted city employees to live in Baltimore City. This would place an unnecessary burden on those of us seeking jobs with the city but who live in Baltimore County. Considering the costs involved with moving, as a renter, I take issue.

State environmental officials approved new coal-ash landfill in southeast Baltimore Tuesday, saying "state-of-the-art" pollution controls there should allay nearby residents' fears that the power plant waste will blow into their neighborhoods and leak into the Patapsco River. After more than a year of deliberation, the Maryland Department of the Environment authorized the disposal of up to 650,000 tons of ash in a specially prepared section of a chemical company landfill at Hawkins Point.

Baltimore County school officials last week issued a stern warning to parents and guardians of sixth- and ninth-grade students that they have until this Friday to prove county residency or be denied enrollment for the 2009-2010 school year. It is a matter the system takes seriously - but perhaps too seriously given the nature of the problem. That the county has a legitimate fiduciary interest in ensuring that its public school students meet residency requirements is beyond question. For as long as anyone can remember, Baltimore County Public Schools have sought to confirm the residency status of new students and transfers.

Military civilian employees and their families moving to Maryland in the base realignment process will qualify for in-state tuition at the University System of Maryland without having to meet the 12-month residency requirement, the Board of Regents decided last week. Though Maryland expects tens of thousands of newcomers as part of the 2005 Base Realignment and Closure initiatives, the number of people likely to accept the offer is estimated in "the low hundreds," said Paul Stackpole, communications officer at the University System of Maryland.

Scores of Howard County seniors are seeking swift County Council approval of a Republican-sponsored property tax cut for residents 70 and older, though several people are urging caution on the election-year measure. "Once a senior has lived in the county 30 or 40 years, there should be some consideration," said Robert Garber, an Ellicott City resident who said he moved to his home in August 1958 and raised four children there. The bill, sponsored by council Chairman Christopher J. Merdon, the GOP candidate for county executive, and Charles C. Feaga, who represents the western county, is one of several measures that drew impassioned speakers at Monday night's hearing in Ellicott City.

A few years ago, we supported Mayor Kurt Schmoke's right, as a parent, to send his daughter to private school. Some residents saw that development as discomforting symbolism -- the mayor pulling his child from the public school system -- but we saw it as a personal and family decision.Why, then, does the mayor feel he has the right to dictate to city employees where they must live or what school system their children must use, under his year-old order that all city employees hired since last July must live in the city?

City Council President Lawrence A. Bell III moved yesterday to overturn the residency law recently passed by state lawmakers that allows his cousin, NAACP President Kweisi Mfume, to join Baltimore's mayoral race. Bell, also a contender in this year's mayoral election, is co-sponsoring a bill introduced last night that would restore the residency requirement for mayoral candidates to a year before the November general election. The action generated some heat at the council meeting.

FREDERICK -- Almost from the moment she moved her Irish posters and framed family photos into the Victorian city hall here, Mayor Jennifer P. Dougherty found herself caught up in nonstop spats. Dougherty, the city's first female mayor, made fast friends -- and foes. Some admired her blunt talk and strong-willed style; others did not. Three Republican aldermen went so far as to change the city's residency rule to let more people run against her. Now, Dougherty, 44, faces her biggest fight yet: She's trying to win a second term against a determined comeback bid by Ronald N. Young, 64, a fellow Democrat and a former mayor.

The Enoch Pratt Free Library's board of trustees voted yesterday to require its members to live in Baltimore, a tactic designed to derail a lawsuit challenging its authority to close neighborhood branches. For years, the trustees' policy required members to live in Baltimore at the time of their appointment, but allowed them to move outside of the city, provided they stayed within the state. A July letter of advice from the state attorney general's office, however, said the library trustees legally must live within the city.