Morning Read: Seeking job cuts, Essex County looks to non-residents
As Essex County looks to cut 12 to 25 jobs from its employment rolls this year, elected leaders say the first place they’ll look is to non-resident workers. This from the Plattsburgh Press-Republican.
Employees of Essex County who live elsewhere without permission could soon be without jobs.
In light of possible upcoming layoffs, on Monday, the County Board of Supervisors Personnel and Administration Committee directed County Personnel Officer Monica Feeley to investigate reports of non-residents working for the county.
According to Lohr McKinstry’s article, county workers who live outside Essex County’s boundaries — in neighboring Clinton, Franklin or Warren counties, most likely — need a waiver to keep their jobs.
County officials suggest that some workers may be gaming the system by renting PO boxes in Essex County to receive their paychecks.
So what do you think? Does it make sense for a county like Essex to require that all its workers be residents?
Tags: adirondacks, economy, politics
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I think it makes more sense to hire the best person for the job. Whether they happen to live on this or the other side of an imaginary line is not a qualification.
County residency is a stupid requirement and ought to be illegal.
I agree with Jim, how much more political can you get, fire the guy that can’t vote for you. A prime example are county employees (from or working in Clinton, Essex or Franklin) who live in Saranac Lake or Keeseville, what difference does a stupid political boundary make? If you are lucky you will get the best person to do the job regardless of the county they live in. Step up Randy Douglas and Tom Scozzafaza and do the right thing for your county and quit looking for the easy way out!
I think it makes perfect sense. If you are being paid with tax payer dollars, you should be a tax payer.
Except that a good portion of Essex County’s taxes are paid by people who are not county residents. And some county jobs are funded by state or federal dollars.
If you are a county employee, it shouldn’t make any difference where you live.
It’s not an unusual requirement as many school districts require their administrators to live within the school district they work for. I don’t particularly agree with any residency requirement for any job, but these requirements aren’t exclusive to Essex County or even New York State.
I’m most curious how the Civil Service dept. of Essex county and the unions for these workers will address this idea. There has to be seniority and job protections to address with regard to termination due to residency. Are those protections waived if an individual is not a resident?
Typically with Civil Service, the first choice is supposed to be the County resident, if that person is “interviewed” for the position, then the requirement is met. Then, for whatever reason(s) that person is not hired for the position, the next one on the list gets interviewed, and so on untill the friend of the employer can then be interviewed and hired, no matter where they live. Gotta love the system.
I would like to see a law that requires you to live and pay taxes in this country if the job you have is paid for from tax dollars. The same should hold true for states, counties, towns and cities.
If working for the private sector it does not and should not matter. But when the pay is coming from tax payer dollars, you should be a contributor to your pay.
If that’s a problem, don’t work for any level of the government.
Maybe they should do it by zipcode. If you live in a nice area you get to keep your job and if not, then goodbye. Or by the color of your eyes.
don’t do anything smart — like cut the people with the lowest employee appraisal or anything based on how well you do your job.
That would be really unfair!
Is this the point i mention Hitler?
just a little cross thread humor…..
Im surprised no one has commented that the layoffs would be unnecessary if only we taxed the rich.