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Ivins council adopts residency rule requiring city manager to live within 30 miles and establish primary residence within 180 days
Summary
The Ivins City Council unanimously adopted an amendment to the city manager residency requirement (section 2.02.0.104) that allows applicants who live outside Ivins to take the job provided they maintain a primary residence within city limits or within 30 miles and make that their primary residence within 180 days of starting.
The Ivins City Council voted unanimously on June 5 to amend the city manager residency requirement, adopting language that requires the manager to maintain a primary residence within Ivins city boundaries or within a 30-mile radius and to establish that primary residence within 180 days of reporting for work.
Mayor (speaker 1) opened the discussion after announcing the city manager’s planned retirement and framed the question as one of recruitment and emergency response. The council weighed keeping a strict in-city residency requirement against removing a barrier that could limit the applicant pool and raise salary pressure. Legal counsel Brian (speaker 14) drafted ordinance language to capture the council’s direction and cautioned about definitions for “primary residence.”
Cade Visser (finance staff, speaker 15) briefed the council on timing concerns: staff needs to meet other reporting deadlines (notably an August 1 ADU reporting requirement) and said the residency-change debate should not delay recruitment. Mayor and councilmembers repeatedly emphasized the importance of ensuring a new manager can respond promptly in emergencies while avoiding a rule that would make competitive hiring impractical.
Councilmember motioned to approve the drafted language (captioned as section 2.02.0.104, residency) and the motion passed by roll-call vote. The clerk read affirmative votes for Councilmembers Anderson, Gillespie, Barton, Smith and Scott. The ordinance text adopted requires the city manager to maintain their primary residence within Ivins or within a 30-mile radius of the city boundary and to establish that primary residence within 180 days after starting the position.
Council members said the change aims to broaden the candidate pool while preserving the expectation that the manager live near Ivins and maintain a primary residence there. The city attorney will finalize the ordinance text for signature and publication, and staff will include the requirement in the city manager job posting and recruitment materials.
The council’s action follows Mayor and staff notice of the current manager’s planned retirement; the council also discussed recruitment process logistics (interview panels and closed-session screening for finalists).
