Okay, seems the warrants have arrived. At least my warrants came in the mail yesterday. Opened mine up lickity-split. No prize inside any of them.
More stuff to come in the mail folks. Treasurer's letter, usually something from the schools, Town Government Study Committee is going to be sending you something.
One of the issues with the TA that shouldn't be gaining a lot of transaction, and should not quite frankly be an issue is a residency requirement.
Absolutely should not be a requirement.
Certainly you want someone residing within a reasonable distance of the community. What that exact distance should be will be subject to some debate and preferences certainly. Police and fire have a ten mile requirement from the perimeter of the town by statute. No other paid position in town (that I am aware of other than elected office) has a residency requirement.
People often argue that we should. I just as often respectfully disagree. All else being equal, certainly preference should be given to town residents. That being said, and more specifically as to the present issue at hand, imposition of a residency requirement would absolutely result in an extremely limited candidate pool.
I am not going to go into a long dissertation on the pros and cons. Most of the cons are in my mind not worth any attention. If you can't see how the imposition of such a requirement is in fact a big detriment, I seriously doubt anything said here would even remotely change that fact.
The residency requirement or lack thereof is not a factor in my thought process on this one at all. Common sense and an interview process, along with subsequent contract negotiations should insure the successful applicant resides within a reasonable distance (and for me it is probably a lot farther than for most of you). To insist however it be somewhere within the boundaries of Fairhaven is not reasonable or honestly a requirement in the best interest of the Town.
Enough on that one.
Enough for today. Be safe.
It might appear that if the TA was a town resident, that he/she would have a greater vested interest in the town. But it could be advantageous not to have a residency requirement because then the TA would be 'personally' removed from issues they need to act on. Thus avoiding conflict between town factions.
ReplyDeleteI think some might argue that if they live in town, then some of their earnings will be spent here. Nothing's saying that won't happen anyway.