Mayor Martin Walsh has approved the recommendation of a City Council-led commission to bolster the enforcement of the 40-year-old residency requirement for all city employees, a move that has led some to express concern over what they see as loopholes.

Part of the overhaul is a mandate that all new top municipal officials take up residence in the city within six months of their appointment and remain both a resident and a registered voter until they leave the job. An exception is allowed for those who hold special skill positions that would otherwise be difficult to fill. Enforcement would also be boosted by increasing the number of investigators and setting stringent penalties for those caught flouting the rules. 

A significant point of contention is a grandfather clause that exempts certain top employees from the requirement. Some with positions in police department’s upper echelons are also in the grandfathered class.

According to Eileen Boyle, an activist with “Save Our City” and a member of a residency compliance commission, the overhaul “creates far more loopholes because so many employees can be grandfathered in.”

A seven-member Residency Policy Commission was established last January and given a mission to reevaluate residency requirements that were all-too-frequently ignored or poorly enforced. At the end of December, the commission held a hearing to gather additional information for their proposal.

Boyle said the “Save Our City” group had hoped that the commission would streamline the residency policy to make it consistent across the board. “Unfortunately,” she said, “we have gone the opposite route.”

The commission’s chairman, Councillor Michael Flaherty, filed the panel’s recommendations with the city clerk on Jan. 7, and Walsh publicly adopted them six days later.

Boyle points to the establishment of the waiver process as particularly worrying. That section states that “the Mayor of his designee may pursue a Residency Waiver for certain positions based on the skill set required and level of difficult filling a position within a reasonable period of time.”

The panel recommended two waivers, an absolute one – the position is exempt from the residency requirement for the incumbency of the appointee – and one with a grace period – the waiver can last up to 36 months and is granted by the mayor to allow a sufficient amount of time for the appointee to take up residency within the city.

Boyle called the absolute waiver “very troubling,” saying that “this is because the mayor is taking care of his friends.” If it were up to her, she said, “You’re not going to get the job unless you live in the city.” 

The panel also proposed penalties for non-compliant city employees: Violators will pay a $300 fine per incidence and face a five-year hiring ban on city of Boston employment. Under the previous requirement, violators were banned from being hired for one to two years, depending on the position. 

City Councillor-at large Annissa Essaibi-George told the Reporter, “I believe that in the best of all worlds, all city employees would live here, making Boston their home. This strengthens all of Boston neighborhoods and gives employees a close-up perspective of life in the city.”