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HomeMy WebLinkAboutAgenda - 06-26-2007-6gORANGE COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS ACTION AGENDA ITEM ABSTRACT Meeting Date: June 26, 2007 Action Agen~a Item No. _ e~~- SUBJECT: Potential Policy Regarding a Requirement that County Department Heads Reside Within the County DEPARTMENT: County Commissioners PUBLIC HEARING: (Y/N) No ATTACHMENT(S): Other NC Counties and Towns in Orange County -Department Heads Residency Information INFORMATION CONTACT: County Commissioners Office, 245- 2130 PURPOSE: To consider providing direction to the County Manager regarding the development of a potential policy requiring newly-hired County department heads to reside within the County. BACKGROUND: There has been recent discussion by some Board members and staff regarding a potential County policy requiring all newly-hired department heads to reside within Orange County. As background for this discussion, the Manager's Office has included the attached information. The attached materials detail information from other counties on department head residency requirements as well as information on residency requirements for the three towns in the County. Sixteen of the 26 current County department heads (including Assistant County Managers) live in the County. Ten department heads do not live in the County. (It should be noted that the recently hired Assistant County Manager has expressed a desire to move to Orange County.) It is also worth noting that four of the non-resident department heads are among the longest tenured of all department heads. The Manager is requesting direction from the Board regarding the development of a potential policy. Issues that need to be addressed include: • Timeframes for residency compliance in a potential policy • Potential affordability issues for newly-hired department heads, including single parent/income families, unable to qualify to purchase a home in the County based on income qualification ratios and the average home sales price in the County • Potential negative impacts on recruitment for vacancies, especially with candidates from adjoining counties 2 • Potential policy impacts on non-resident department heads as candidates for promotion to new positions such as assistant county manager • Potential conflicts with job residency issues/requirements for potential new department heads' family members • Potential opportunities/methods for exemption from a potential policy. In addition to addressing these matters, the Manager will confer with the County Attorney regarding any legal matters associated with a potential policy. The Manager will also review any impacts on the County's Personnel Ordinance and/or personnel policy documents to account for any issues/conflicts. The Manager would also like to explore options/incentives that might enhance/supplement/supplant apotential policy. FINANCIAL IMPACT: There is no cost associated with the Board providing direction to the Manager regarding the development of a potential policy requiring newly-hired County department heads to reside within the County RECOMMENDATION(S): The Manager recommends that the Board review the information in the attached report, discuss the issues outlined under Background immediately above, and provide direction to the Manager regarding the development of a proposed policy. .~ Residency Requirement for Department Heads County Residency Requirement? Comments Wake No Gaston Yes Email from Jan Winters, Co. Mgr Mgr required to live in county; Mgr has Durham No asked some department heads to move; thinks it will limit recruitment abilit . Catawba Yes Johnston No Randolph No Email from Richard Wells, Co. Mgr Email from Steve Carpenter, Co. Mgr Although no residency requirement, Person No they expect Supervisors to contribute to the community through active involvement. Email from John Crumpton, Co. Mgr Scotland .Yes Would like more information about my responses; unhappy with current polic . Email from Jerry Ayscue, Co. Mgr Most live within county anyways; just Vance No recruited Social Services Director from Raleigh, she fits their needs perfectly, et must retain residenc in Ralei h. Email from Robert Hyatt, Co. Mgr Informally, BOCC expect all Davidson No formal requirement Department heads to live within county; no formal requirement leaves room for exceptions. Email from Tom Robinson, Co. Mgr Rockingham No Manager and Assistant Manager required to live in-county; believes it would hurt their recruitment process. Coun ~ Residency Comments Re uirement? See email from Randy Keaton, Co. Pasquotank No Mgr; BOCC policy to favor candidates livin inside count Harnett No Warren No Co. Mgr. required Carteret Yes Dept heads have 6 months to establish residenc . Martin Yes Live within geographic limits. Emergency Services; Law Guilford No Enforcement; Public Health; DSS; Mental Health. Lee No At the discretion of the Co Mgr; ' depends on the scope of the ob. Granville No Alamance Halifax Yes Room for exceptions; provides at least $2000 moving sti end CitylTown Residency Requirement? Comments Chapel Hill No Worked out between Mgr and De artment Head Carrboro No ~ st Responders live close; Town Mgr re wired See email from Eric Peterson; Hillsborough No provides new department heads with stipend for moving expenses if they choose to move to Hillsborough. Orange County Department Heads 16/26= 61.54% live in Orange County 10/26= 38.46% live outside Orange County Department Head Residency Requirement Emails From: Heather Strickland [mailto:hstrickland@co.orange.nc.us] Sent: Wednesday, June 20, 2007 2:19 PM To: The ccmanagers mailing list Subject: [ccmanagers] Department Head Residency Requirement In Orange County our Commissioners are looking at implementing a policy requiring department heads to live in-county. We are seeking a general feeling of County positions across the State on this issue. Do you require department heads to live in the county? If so, has this policy negatively afFected your recruitment potential? Any anecdotal evidence about this issue will be greatly appreciated. Do you think requiring residency is a good idea or a bad idea? Thanks! Heather R. Strickland Orange County Manager's Office hstrickland Cy~co.orange.nc.us 919.245.2128 Gaston County From: Jan Winters [mailto:Jan.Winters@co.gaston.nc.us] Sent: Wednesday, June 20, 2007 3:04 PM To: Heather Strickland Subject: Gaston County requires all department heads to reside in the County. 1 do not believe this is the best policy and I am trying to get the Board to change it for the following reasons: 1) We should be seeking the best available candidates for our top jobs and not limit ourselves to those willing to reside within our county. 2) We are part of a major metro area and becoming more integrated with the other counties every day. It is not uncommon for both parties in a relationship to hold professional jobs. What if the spouse has a similar requirement as we are placing on the candidate? 3) The rationale for a director to reside within the County may be logically applied to certain positions -County Manager, Tax Assessor, possibly the Health Director, but why would it apply to the IT Director or HR Director or other internal tO Durham County From: Jensen, Laura [mailto:ljensen@co.durham.nc.us] Sent: Thursday, June 21, 2007 9:51 AM To: Heather Strickland . Subject: RE: [ccmanagers] Department Head Residency Requirement Hi Heather, Heidi asked me to respond to your email request. The only residency requirement in Durham County is for the manager. Mike said that he has in the past asked department heads to move to Durham County, and most have been willing. He also said that if a candidate for the job didn't want to move, but otherwise was a good fit for the county, he would not make the person move. Mike feels that requiring residency can limit the county's ability to recruit top candidates. Hope that helps! -Laura Laura Jensen Intern Durham County Manager's Office 200 E. Main St., 2nd Floor Durham, NC 27701 Randolph County From: WeIIs,Richard T. [mailto:RTWells@co.randolph.nc.us] Sent: Wednesday, June 20, 2007 3:20 PM To: Heather Strickland Subject: Residency Not required in Randolph. A small number do live outside the county, but there has never been an issue because of that. Although unwritten, I am certain the co mgr is expected to reside in the county! Richard T. Wells County Manager Randolph County Administration P.O. Box 4728 Asheboro, NC 27204 X336-318-6302 336-318-6853 (fax) ®RTWells(c~co.randolph.nc.us Person County From: Steve Carpenter [mailto:scarpenter@personcounty.net] Sent: Wednesday, June 20, 2007 3:22 PM To: Heather Strickland Subject: From next door.. Hi Heather. We require supervisors to be apart of our community. I don't care if they live in Chapel Hill,but we expect and extra effort to be involved our community off hours as well as during the work period. We do NOT require it though. Scotland County From: john crumpton [mailto:jcrumpton@scotlandcounty.org] Sent: Wednesday, June 20, 2007 3:01 PM To: The ccmanagers mailing list Subject: Re: [ccmanagers] Department Head Residency Requirement I would like to see these responses as well. We currently have a policy that requires all department heads to reside in the County. When there is an opening it is becoming more and more difficult to find people to move to the County.. Moving expenses and the cost of selling and buying real estate are big barriers to hiring the best qualified candidates. John A. crumpton County Manager Scotland County PO Box 489 Laurinburg, NC 28352 (910) 277-2406 -Work (910) 277-2411 -Fax Vance County From: Jerry L. Ayscue [mailto:jlayscue@vancecounty.org] Sent: Wednesday, June 20, 2007 3:37 PM To: Heather Strickland Subject: Residency Requirements for Dept. Heads Heather, Vance County does not require department heads to reside inside the County, although the overwhelming majority of them do. It is unquestionably advantageous to have department heads to be integral parts of the community and to have a vested interest in their work. There are some instances, however, where the advantages of residency are overshadowed by unique skills, specialization, etc. We have arecently-employed Social Services Director who lives in Raleigh and is just a perfect fit for our current needs. We had looked long and hard for the right person and one of her requirements was that she needed to remain in her residence in Raleigh. It is working just fine. Best of luck! Jerry Jerry L. Ayscue Vance County Manager Tel (252) 738-2002 Fax (252) 738-2039 Davidson County From: Robert Hyatt [mailto:rhyatt@co.davidson.nc.us] Sent: Wednesday, June 20, 2007 5:20 PM To: The ccmanagers mailing list Subject: RE: [ccmanagers] Department Head Residency Requirement Heather, For many years, Davidson County has had an informal practice of requiring department heads to live in the County. (By informal I mean that it is not written in the County's Personnel Resolution, however it is an expectation by the Board of Commissioners). Based on the Manager's recommendation, afew exceptions have been allowed. (Exceptions usually deal with already living in very close proximity to the County, or allowing extended time to sell existing home). I think to some degree that it has negatively impacted the County's ability to recruit from our more populated urban neighboring counties especially since the County does not offer any assistance with relocation related cost. Also it seems somewhat ironic that our County has one of the highest out commute of workers in the state, but we discourage potential key County officials from in commuting into our County. I do understand our County Commissioners motives for wanting key County officials to live in the County. They believe that it's hard to become a leader in the community and act in the community's best interest if you do not live there, participating daily in work and non work related activities. After some 25 years of observation, I do believe that their motives have some merit. Robert Hyatt Davidson County 9 Rockingham County From: Tom Robinson [mailto:tbr@CO.ROCKINGHAM.NC.US] Sent: Wednesday, June 20, 2007 5:41 PM To: The ccmanagers mailing list Subject: RE: [ccmanagers] Department Head Residency Requirement In Rockingham County the only the manager and assistant manager are required to live in the county. We would loose a lot of high quality people if we required then to live in the county. We probably have 4 or 5 out of 24 that live outside the county. We also have some department heads from neighboring counties that also live in our county. Pasquotank County From: Keaton, Randy [mailto:KeatonR@co.pasquotank.nc.us] Sent:. Wednesday, June 20, 2007 6:00 PM To: The ccmanagers mailing list Subject: RE: [ccmanagers] Department Head Residency Requirement . Pasquotank County has a policy that it is "preferable and desirable that county employees reside within the county's boundaries. Therefore, as between applicants of comparable qualifications, the applicant that is a county resident shall receive priority consideration over the applicant who is not a county resident." That being said, we do not require department heads to live in the county especially if they live in an adjoining county and can respond quickly to the workplace in the event of an emergency. Randy Keaton Harnett County From: Tony Wilder [mailto:twilder@harnett.org] Sent: Thursday, June 21, 2007 9:34 AM To: The ccmanagers mailing list Subject: RE: [ccmanagers] Department Head Residency Requirement Harnett County does not require residency on Department Heads however Health Boards and Social Services Boards may. Wm. A. (`T'ony) Wilder, Asst. County Manager County of Harnett P. O. Box 759 Lillington, NC 27546 910-893-7555 910-814-2662 (fax) Warren County, From: Linda Jones [mailto:ljones@co.warren.nc.us] Sent: Thursday, June 21, 2007 9:49 AM To: The ccmanagers mailing list Subject: RE: [ccmanagers] Department Head Residency Requirement In Warren County, the only individual on County payroll, excluding the Register of Deeds and Sheriff, that is required to live in the County, is the County Manager. O Linda T. Jones Warren County Manager 252-257-3115 (P) 252-257-5971 (F) ~~ Carteret County From: John Langdon [mailto:john)@carteretcountygov.org] Sent: Thursday, June 21, 2007 9:59 AM To: The ccmanagers mailing list Subject: RE: [ccmanagers] Department Head Residency Requirement In Carteret County, department heads have 6 months to establish residency John Langdon Carteret County Manager (252) 728-8450 Martin County From: Russell Overman [mailto:roverman@martincountyncgov.com] Sent: Thursday, June 21, 2007 10:46 AM To: The ccmanagers mailing list Subject: RE: [ccmanagers] Department Head Residency Requirement Martin County policy requires Department Heads to live within "the geographic limits" of Martin County. Department Heads moving to the county are given a reasonable period of time to relocate. if necessary. Russell Overman Martin County Manager P O Box 668 Williamston, NC 27892 Phone: 252.789.4300 Fax: 252.789.4309 f~ Town of Hillsborough From: Eric Peterson [mailto:eric.peterson@hillsboroughnc.org] Sent: Thursday, June 21, 2007 3:41 PM To: Heather Strickland Subject: RE: Residency Requirements Hi Heather, No, we do not require department heads to live inside the corporate limits. In fact, the Planning Director and I are the only members of the management team that live in Hillsborough proper. When we hire new department heads I offer additional moving expense reimbursement to encourage department heads to live in town because l do think it is important. Thanks, Eric Eric Peterson Town of Hillsborough Town Manager 919-732-1270 ext 80 eric.peterson@hillsboroughnc.org