Voters in Palmer will weigh in this fall on whether to eliminate a longstanding rule requiring the city manager to live within city limits — a rule that dates back to the city’s incorporation in 1951. The matter has resurfaced with the hiring of a new city manager, Kolby Hickel Zerkel, who does not yet live in Palmer.
The proposed change will appear on the Oct. 7 municipal ballot and, if passed, would remove the residency requirement entirely rather than expanding the eligible living area.
The Palmer City Charter says the city manager “be a resident of the city,” residing within the city’s roughly five-square-mile boundary. But some members of the Palmer City Council argue the rule is outdated. There is limited amount of housing in city limits, for one thing. Modern times allow people to work remotely and constant communication.
If the measure passes voters, it would have an immediate impact on Zerkel, who lives in Anchorage and said she has struggled to find suitable housing in the city. She has indicated that she plans to move to the Mat-Su area or Palmer, regardless. Zerkel was appointed after the previous city manager Stephen Jellie resigned after less than two months on the job following controversies surrounding his actions and potential legal issues. Zerkel previously served as deputy municipal manager in Anchorage and as the State Operations Director for US Senator Dan Sullivan.
A separate change approved by the City Council lifts all residency requirements for department heads, including the fire and police chiefs, but this ordinance does not require a public vote.
Council members voted 4-2 to place the city manager residency question on the ballot.
BIG MISTAKE!!! Just look what happened with the Outsider Anchorage School Superintendent.
Not a good idea having people with absentee landlord status running your community as they tend not to have a stake in it as a resident would.
It makes sense but seems very open ended. Residency not required, what does this mean. No residency required within city limits? Understandable. Will there be a radius one must live within? State residency? No residency requirement in the state? We need boundaries here.
The argument for having a requirement is that the official supposedly has a stake in the municipal decisions that he or she may be a part of making. However, this can work against the recruitment of sought after official when limited appropriate housing exists within the city limits. This requirement can discourage talented candidates who might be forced to accept a lifestyle greatly reduced from what they are used to. It would be better to incentivize the official with pay and measurable standards of performance.
I would definitely want some boundaries. There was suggestion that the candidate live within the 99645 zip code. The problem is that the current City boundary has always been just a few miles in radius. The downtown Palmer area to the State Fairgrounds approx. The Palmer airport to the South. There’s not a whole lot of houses within. The Palmer zip code is much wider stretching all the way down to Butte and beyond going South and half-way to Wasilla. I would be ok with that.