Officials, activist discuss residency issue

Eleven men and women showed up at the meeting.
YOUNGSTOWN -- Debate over residency for city employees continues.
Fire Chief John J. O'Neill Jr., representing the mayor, and Patrolman Frank Bigowsky, grievance officer for the Youngstown Police Association, spoke Wednesday night at St. Dominic Parish Center on Southern Boulevard. The forum was sponsored by the Southern Boulevard Block Watch.
Community activist Maggie Lorenzi cited "nice weather" as the reason for low turnout. Eleven men and women showed up.
A new state law that allows city residents to live no further away than a contiguous county took effect May 1. Since then, Mayor Jay Williams has said employees who move will be terminated and the city filed a lawsuit challenging the law's constitutionality.
O'Neill said the mayor has a problem with the state Legislature telling him the vote of the people who live here and chose residency for municipal employees doesn't matter. The fire chief said he believes in residency and finds it hypocritical that the law purports to allow freedom of residency but confines residency to no farther away than a contiguous county.
Upholding the law
Bigowsky said he took an oath to uphold the law and the new law "is valid and on the books." He said if a city employee moves out -- and then the law is ruled unconstitutional -- the employee is "on the hook" to move back in.
Lorenzi said the city charter was not legally formed and therefore an amendment to it that requires residency is invalid.
Bigowsky said the police union is aware of the charter issue and has passed the question on to its lawyers.
The officer said employees should be able to decide where to live. He said he lives on the North Side and loves it. That's not to say that things could change down the road, he said.
He said GM doesn't require its workers to buy GM cars.
The argument that employees who live in the city take more pride in their work "simply isn't true," Bigowsky said.
O'Neill said he'd be concerned about a call-out for a big fire if firefighters live on the fringes of Stark County, for example.
Bigowsky and O'Neill agreed that the city school system's poor reputation -- low test scores -- is a concern for police and firefighters. O'Neill said he's satisfied with his son's school but would move if he thought it unsafe.
"I think the ones who want to get educated, get educated," O'Neill said.
Bigowsky said some officers -- himself included -- have children with special needs that can't be met by city schools. "The line needs to be drawn when it comes to my family," he said. The officer said the vast majority of police officers live in the city, and he doesn't expect a mass exodus.