Residency requirements set for future City fire, police chiefs

The City of Guthrie will now demand that future fire and police chiefs to live within a certain geographical area in Logan County.

With a 6-0 council vote, Ordinance 3358 was adopted last week that states a Guthrie fire chief or police chief must live within the Guthrie and Coyle school districts.

The ordinance came upon a request from Councilman Don Channel, who said the current chiefs would be grandfathered in with this action.

“I think the police and fire chiefs should be a part of the community and should live here,” Channel said to the council members. “They are responsible for our safety. Their departments are the biggest departments and have the most asks.”

Channel said the ordinance is not aimed at anybody and believes this is the way it should be.

“I don’t think there is anyone (council members) sitting up here that wouldn’t want your police chief or your fire chief to be a part of the community rather than bringing one in from Piedmont, Enid or wherever everyday just to come here, clock in and then get in his car and go home.”

Originally, the idea was to require the chiefs to live within city limits. However, a state statue says municipalities cannot require a city employee to live in the city limits. To require residency requirements within the city limits it would take a charter amendment (a vote of the people) to take effect.

State statue reads a municipal governing body by ordinance may designate which appointed officers and employees shall reside within the municipality; but police officers, firefighters and other municipal employees need not be actual residents of the municipality where they are employed in municipalities of 5,000 population or more, according to the latest federal census.

City Manager Leroy Alsup and City Attorney Billy Wheeler worked together to draft the ordinance.

“Billy and I looked at it, of course anything can be challenged in court, but we think because we provided something that doesn’t limit to them to just inside the city limits it can be done by ordinance,” Alsup said to the council.

Alsup added the way the ordinance is written it is a broader geographical area and is not confine to just the city limits.