Small-town Whitewater has a residency requirement for public leadership positions in city government. It’s a sign of the decline of Whitewater’s town squires that they cannot consistently enforce a rule of their own making
Ironically, although I don’t support Whitewater’s mostly narrow and short-sighted town fathers, I’ve supported the residency requirement for two reasons.
First, it applies to leaders who should set an example of living in the community they serve, enjoying its benefits and sharing its burdens. If they’re compensated from the community, they should live in the community that taxes residents for that compensation.
Second, it’s a lawful requirement now, that should be applied equally and fairly to all who fall within its range. (I’d even apply this rule to interim leaders, on the same first reason, listed above.) The residency rule for leaders doesn’t say sometimes, maybe, or when someone feels like following the rules. Within the city – for services and tax purposes — actually means within the city, not kinda, sorta close by.
(If the rule changes, so be it; as long as it’s in force, all leaders should have to comply with it equally.)
Imagine how absurd it would be for someone to say he’d pay his taxes a year from now, or maybe a year after that, or thereafter if Whitewater’s Common Council thought it absolutely necessary.
Similarly, if he ran a stop sign into an empty oncoming street, no one would excuse him for being, well gosh, just halfway out into the road. On the contrary, it would be the municipal offense of the century that a common person did something like that. If he lived near the city, no one would allow him to vote in city elections just because he kinda, sorta lived near the city line.
Although some of Whitewater’s leaders have long been in the habit of making exceptions for themselves, the real story here is that Whitewater’s leaders cannot assure the enforcement of simple rules they, themselves established. Residency was supposed to be evidence of a commitment to Whitewater, to the ‘exceptional’ quality of life here, to all that these leaders had uniquely achieved.
Yet, they lack even the confidence to insist on their own standards. (If they’d really wanted those standards enforced, they would have chosen a better negotiator for the city’s position, too.)
Residency rules? Here today, gone tomorrow.
A stodgy town faction’s ability to enforce even its own standards? Just plain gone.