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Highland expands residency stipend to Public Works and Parks; council seeks clarity on scope and budget
Summary
Council discussed and recorded ordinances creating a $200-per-month residency stipend (up to $2,400 annually) for full-time Public Works and Parks employees, effective Jan. 1, 2026; councilors asked liaisons to confirm which positions should be eligible and noted vote tallies were not recorded in the minutes.
The Highland Town Council addressed proposed changes to compensation ordinances on Jan. 12 that add a residency-stipend provision for full-time employees in the Public Works and Parks & Recreation departments.
Ordinance No. 1845 (amending the Compensation and Benefits Ordinance) and Ordinance No. 1842-A (amending the wage and salary ordinance) insert a residency stipend: effective Jan. 1, 2026, qualifying employees who reside in Highland would receive $200 per month for each complete month of residency, capped at $2,400 in a calendar year. To qualify, employees must provide a copy of a Homestead Exemption or a current lease plus a sworn statement of residency; payments are to be made as a lump sum in January of the following year, "regardless of whether they still reside in Highland or are employed by the Town of Highland," according to the ordinance language included in the minutes.
Councilor Alex Robertson urged caution about expanding the stipend too broadly. He said the policy was intended to incentivize employees whose proximity materially affects emergency response and on-call duties, not to function as a across-the-board salary increase: "If we start to blanket all of these departments, it loses its integrity ... It is harder to reel it back in after you give it out." Robertson asked whether stipends should be limited to supervisors or roles that respond to off-hour emergencies rather than every staff member.
Councilor Philip Scheeringa defended residency incentives for public-safety and emergency-response roles, noting the town sought officers and other personnel who live in Highland so vehicles and response capacity are present in town. Council members said they received different counts of likely eligible employees; what had been described as a single eligible Parks employee turned out to be closer to ten, a point that prompted Councilor Robertson to request that council liaisons consult department heads and return with recommendations on which positions should qualify.
The minutes show full ordinance text and cite Indiana Code sections referenced in the ordinance preambles (e.g., IC 36-1-3; IC 36-5-2). The minutes state the ordinances were "Duly ordained and adopted" on Jan. 12, 2026, but they do not include a roll-call tally in the text provided to the minutes. The council directed liaisons to follow up with department heads to identify which positions the stipend should cover and to report back for further council review.
Next steps: liaisons to consult department heads and return with a recommended list of positions for stipend eligibility; council to review those recommendations before final implementation details and budget adjustments, if any.
