The City’s Residency Compliance Commission, which ensures people employed by the City of Boston live within city limits, has temporarily allowed waivers for potential workers outside of Boston to fill select government positions due to recent scarce prospects when hiring workers.
The City and Boston Public Schools are also in the process of bargaining with various trade unions, so there is not a set date for the policy’s implementation. City Councilor Kenzie Bok said the vacancies are at an “emergency level.”
“It’s a really tight labor market, and you’re seeing really high costs of living,” said Bok, who is also a member of the Residency Compliance Commission. “So, that combination are really making it impossible for us to hire for some of these roles.”
The positions include Boston Public Schools bus monitors and cafeteria workers, Boston Police Department call-takers and 911 dispatchers, and City arborists.
The City spokesperson described the “temporary policy move” as “working with the best interests of Boston’s residents, students and visitors in mind.”
Once 85% of the positions are filled, the City says waivers will no longer be accepted and the rest of the positions will have to be filled by Boston residents, except for arborists, who can continue to be non-Boston hires. Furthermore, after three years have passed, every employee who filed for employment using the waiver will have to prove Boston residency.
“The jobs included in the temporary lifting of the residency requirement are either crucial to public safety and health, or require special skills that have made hiring difficult,” a City spokesperson wrote in an email.
Bok further explained the vacuum these positions leave when they are unfilled.
“It’s really scary when any constituent of mine calls 911 and risks that they’re going to get a ‘sorry, no operator available,’ that’s just unacceptable,” she said. “The same thing with a bus that can’t get a student to their destination because the bus monitor that they need to have on that bus isn’t there. These are critical breakdowns.”
Bok emphasized, though, that this policy is only temporary and that the goal for the City of Boston is to be “government of the people, by the people.”
“We want it to be Bostonians in these jobs,” Bok said. “But, it’s also our duty to Bostonians to make sure that these jobs are filled.”