Guest MINDSETTER™ Rep. Hull: Time for Providence to Reestablish Residency

Monday, April 03, 2017

Guest MINDSETTER™ Rep. Ray Hull

The best decision I ever made as a police officer wasn’t something I did on the job. It was when I bought my house on Mt. Pleasant Avenue. I chose to stay in Providence, where I grew up and where I am privileged to serve as a police officer and a state representative.

Living in Providence means I don’t only see the city’s residents at their worst moments, when they’ve been the victim of a crime or made a choice that led to them being arrested. Instead, they’re the neighbors I see at church, at the grocery store, and when we shovel our driveways together after a storm. When they need my help, I’m here and can quickly address their concerns. More importantly, people know they can approach me because I’m a neighbor, not a stranger in a blue uniform. This wouldn’t happen if I worked from nine to five then drove home to the suburbs.

Unfortunately, most city employees didn’t make the same choice I did. Sixty-five percent of municipal workers, and 82% of the police and fire department, live somewhere else. Right now, the public safety commissioner takes his salary of over $155,000 home to pay property taxes in Cranston where he resides. Providence’s police chief takes his money to East Greenwich, while the Director of Emergency Management takes his paycheck home to Portsmouth.

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I know from personal experience that Providence’s employees are devoted to their jobs, but there is no substitute for residency to make city workers true stakeholders in our city’s success. The mayor and state legislature need to reexamine the residency requirement for city workers. This was the law until 2005 and changing it was a big mistake by Rhode Island’s lawmakers.

Government functions best when it’s employees are personally invested in the community they serve. A residency requirement would make Providence’s workforce more diverse without having to resort to hiring quotas or controversial affirmative action plans. Additionally, when city workers pay the taxes that fund their salaries and benefits, unions are more likely to weigh the financial impacts of their demands instead of viewing city taxpayers as an ATM that will never run out of money. The city pays generous salaries and good benefits. It’s only fair that the money stays in our economy rather than going to places like Cranston, Barrington, East Greenwich, and other communities.

Residency requirements would immediately reduce income inequality in Providence. In my lifetime, I’ve seen a lot of positive change here in the capital city. But at the same time, our middle-class has been hollowed out just like most major cities, especially in the last decade. There are increasingly two Providences – one for wealthy professionals and another for low-income residents struggling to make ends meet. Keeping middle-class municipal jobs in our city would help change that dynamic

As a candidate for mayor, Jorge Elorza vowed to require all his department heads to live in Providence. Instead, the mayor’s actions haven’t lived up to his promises. Many of his directors, including the leadership of Public Safety, Public Works, and the Emergency Management Department, live outside the city. The most recent class of police academy recruits, the first one under Mayor Elorza, draws only a third of its members from city residents. Of that third, many will leave Providence as soon as they become police officers. The same pattern will be true of the new firefighters and teachers hired by Elorza’s administration. Regrettably, his campaign trail commitment was just empty rhetoric.

Residency works. It makes city workers invested in the community they serve. It boosts the city’s economy and reduces income inequality. Unions ask for more reasonable contracts since their members pay the taxes that fund their salaries. Residency is an idea whose time has come.

Guest MINDSETTER™ Rep. Hull: Time for Providence to Reestablish Residency

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