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Committee recommends residency rule for senior executives despite administration opposition
Summary
The committee voted to recommend approval of Ordinance 2025-1138, which would reinstate residency requirements for certain senior city officers and executive-service employees. The administration opposed the change citing recruitment and retention concerns; supporters said residency fosters accountability and trust.
The Governmental Operations Special Committee voted to forward Ordinance 2025-1138 to City Council with a recommendation to approve an amendment that would modify the city’s residency requirement to apply to certain officers and senior executive-service employees.
Council members supporting the ordinance said it is narrowly written to apply to senior executive roles and is intended to strengthen accountability and the city’s relationship with residents. “When folks who work for the city live in the city…they do a better job of designing and improving [systems],” said a council member supporting the measure. Supporters emphasized exemptions for employees with caregiving constraints and said the change would not apply to the vast majority of the city’s roughly 4,000 employees.
Administration witnesses opposed the change. Sharon Ebert, interim chief administrative officer, told the committee that while many current senior leaders do live in the city, making residency mandatory could put the city at a recruitment disadvantage. She described recent steps—joining the Virginia Retirement System and raising compensation—that have improved the city’s competitiveness for talent and said rigid residency rules could reduce the candidate pool.
Tyrone Alexander, director of human resources, said the residency requirement would hamper recruitment, retention and succession planning for city leadership. He said the 2018 amendment to the city code had expanded access to regional talent and that, in his view, reimposing residency requirements would “undermine” gains made by adopting the Virginia Retirement System and other compensation improvements.
Proponents said the requirement is limited to a narrow set of senior positions, that there are exemptions for family-caregiving constraints, and that it would not affect the majority of the city’s workforce. During the public hearing the administration urged caution, warning that the requirement could delay hiring and reduce promotion opportunities for internal candidates who live outside city limits.
After public testimony and discussion, the committee recorded affirmative votes from Council Member Gibson and Vice Chair Abubakar to forward the ordinance with a recommendation to approve; the measure proceeds to full Council for action.
