Council drops effort to override mayor’s veto of residency change

WARREN — City council will probably not make another attempt to override the mayor’s veto of legislation that would allow city workers to live outside the city.

“Nobody’s going to change their mind. It’s done,” clerk of council Darla K. Neugebauer said Thursday.

Lawmakers voted 6-4 on Wednesday not to override Mayor Michael J. O’Brien’s Dec. 6 veto. Seven votes were needed from the 10 lawmakers.

Those voting to support a veto were Councilmen Fiore Dippolito, D-1st, and James A. Pugh, D-6th, and Councilwomen Susan Hartman, D-7th, and Helen Rucker, D-at-large.

The state Legislature had approved effective May 1, 2006, a measure that allows city employees to live outside the city limits.

O’Brien has pointed to the state’s Home Rule Amendment that says that municipalities shall have authority to exercise all powers of local self-government.

He has asserted that limiting regulations, such as eliminating a residency requirement, “unjustly intrudes on the rights of cities and villages to govern as they feel necessary.”

Hartman was one of the legislators who voted 7-3 on Nov. 29 to comply with state law that says municipalities cannot require employees to live within its boundaries.

Hartman changed her vote from the November legislation, thus council couldn’t muster the seven votes needed.