A rule restricting jobs with the city of Chattanooga to Tennessee residents could fall next year if the city council asks for a referendum lifting the residency requirement.
Chattanooga’s police and fire chiefs told council members during a meeting Tuesday that allowing prospective employees to keep their homes in Georgia and Alabama and commute to the city could make a major difference to recruiting efforts. To change the rule, the council must add a referendum amending Chattanooga’s charter to voters’ ballots during the March municipal elections.
Chattanooga in recent years scrapped a requirement that its employees live inside the city limits, extending the hireable range throughout the state. The general assembly also recently voted to let local governments dispense with requirements that employees must live inside state bounds. But Chattanooga’s rule on in-state residency is still current. That creates a problem for the city, just minutes from Georgia and under an hour from the Alabama state line, Chattanooga Police Chief John Chambers said.
“You’re allowed to live as far north and west as North Memphis, all the way at the edge of the state,” Chambers said in a presentation to council members Tuesday. “But what we can’t do is live just below the line.”
Chattanooga’s past residency requirements caused some heartburn at times.