By Joe Napsha, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review (Pennsylvania)
Greensburg police officers want the right to live outside the city limits without any penalties, just like police officers in Latrobe and New Kensington.
Residency requirements for Greensburg police officers is one of the outstanding issues in the ongoing negotiations between the city and the Fraternal Order of Police General Greene Lodge No. 56, said Susan Trout, city administrator. The FOP’s current four-year contract, which covers about 25 officers, expires Dec. 31.
“I think it should be a choice (to live outside the city) without the penalty,” said Lt. Stanley Joyce, president of FOP Lodge No. 56.
Greensburg’s police officers won the right to live outside the city in 2000, but there are restrictions and penalties. Officers must have at least five years of service and live within 10 air miles of the Westmoreland County Courthouse. Officers opting to live outside the city forfeit 25 percent of their annual longevity pay, which amounts to 1 percent of their pay per year, up to 20 years.
Two of Greensburg’s veteran police officers have taken advantage of the opportunity to live outside the city, Trout said. A third officer, Patrolman Regina Depellegrin, was hired in July 2003 but is nearing the end of an 18-month period after which she must move into the city.
If the police department gets the residency provision removed in its contract with Greensburg, Joyce said he does not believe that “you will see a mass exodus out of the city.”
The right to live outside the city does not extend to Chief Walter J. “Wally” Lyons and Capt. George Seranko, both of whom are covered under different contracts with the city.
Trout declined to comment on the city’s position on the issue or about talks with the police union. Trout said last week the city is close to an agreement and is hopeful contract issues can be resolved by city council’s Dec. 13 meeting.
Mark Koch, president of the Fraternal Order of Police Pennsylvania State Lodge, said some cities still have residency requirements while others have eliminated the provisions. Greensburg is among a number of cities that have modified residency requirements, Koch said.
The FOP supports legislation to eliminate residency requirements, which Koch said are “left over from an earlier era.”
In Latrobe, police officers won the right to move outside the city in an arbitration award in 1997, said Rick Stadler, Latrobe’s city manager. An arbitrator at that time ruled that officers had to live within five miles of the city police station. This year, an arbitrator gave officers the right to move 10 miles away from the city police station, Stadler said.
“There’s no strings attached” to the residency requirements, according to Stadler. Without those restrictions, only four of the 12 officers live within Latrobe’s borders.
Dennis Scarpiniti, New Kensington city clerk, said there are no residency requirements for New Kensington’s police officers, but they must live within 10 miles of the police station.
The residency requirements were removed several years ago during negotiations, Scarpiniti said, but he believes the sentiments for relaxing those rules have changed.
“I don’t think it’s a popular issue. As time has gone on, councils have been more apt to be against people living outside the community,” Scarpiniti said.
Sixteen of the department’s 23 officers live outside of New Kensington, Scarpiniti said.
The officers had argued that, for safety reasons, they do not want to live in the community where they have arrested suspects.
In Monessen, police officers have the right to live outside the city boundaries after serving 15 years on the force, Rosalie Nicksich, city clerk, said.
While the city’s contract with the department’s 12 police officers does not penalize any officer who lives outside Monessen, Nicksich said only one officer has exercised that right.
If state law changes regarding residency requirements, the city would eliminate the residency requirement, Nicksich said.
Jeannette’s police officers, like all other city employees, are required to live within city boundaries, said Ronald Dinsmore, city clerk. Dinsmore said there is a belief that if you work for the city and are paid with public funds, then you should live within city borders and pay taxes there.
The residency issue in the negotiations might have been a moot point if state Rep. James E. Casorio’s bill preventing a third-class city from instituting residency requirements for police officers had been approved.
The bill was in the state House Local Government Committee, but it was not put to a vote before the General Assembly ended its session last month. Kim Acri, a legislative assistant for the North Huntingdon Township Democrat, said last week that Casorio intends to introduce a similar bill in the Legislature next year.
Trout said she does not know whether the city would be required to abide by the bill, if it becomes law, because Greensburg ceased to be a third-class city after adopting a home rule charter.
State Sen. Jane Orie, of Allegheny County, introduced a bill to eliminate residency requirements for police officers, but the bill never was brought to a vote, the senator’s aide said. The McCandless Republican plans to introduce the bill in the next legislative session in 2005, but details of the bill have yet to be determined, the aide said.