The City Council rejected a bid to rescind Harvey’s residency requirement for city employees.
Ald. Frank Piekarski sponsored the change in the 16-year-old ordinance, but only he voted for the plan to allow city workers to live outside Harvey.
Before voting against lifting the ban, Ald. Marsha Bond said, “If the people want to work here, they’ll have to live here.”
The city’s police, fire and streets and sanitation workers had called for lifting the ban. Each union is working without a contract and would have traded fewer paid holidays or lower pay increases in exchange for lifting the residency requirement.
However, residents had spoken out against lifting the ban at a previous council meeting and even Piekarski acknowledged public support ran against the idea.
