City of Topeka considers dropping employee residency requirement

Topeka’s governing body plans next week to discuss dropping the city’s requirement that its employees live in Shawnee County.

The move would improve the city’s ability to hire the best-qualified people, the city council’s economic and community development committee heard Jan. 16 from Police Chief Bill Cochran, Fire Chief Craig Duke and planning director Bill Fiander.

“We have lost people because they did not have that option,” Fiander said.

Council and committee members Karen Hiller, Jeff Coen and Tony Emerson voted 3-0 on Jan. 16 to recommend the proposal be approved by the city’s governing body, which consists of the nine council members and Mayor Michelle De La Isla.

No one spoke against the proposal that day, though Emerson acknowledged he’d felt some reservations about it. The city since the early 1980s has required all its employees to be “bona fide residents of Shawnee County,” though it allows for new hires to move into Shawnee County within six months of their hiring.

The city’s rules also require employees holding public safety jobs to — within six months after finishing their initial probationary periods — live no more than 30 minutes’ travel time from their assigned reporting station or office.

The economic and community development committee in recent months has discussed scrapping those requirements.

According to the proposal it put forth, “Best practices indicate that imposing a residency requirement can serve as a barrier in the application and hiring process, which could negatively affect the City’s ability to attract and retain a highly skilled workforce.”