Battle heating up over residency requirement in Milwaukee

MILWAUKEE (WITI) -- Should Milwaukee city workers be forced to live within the city? Gov. Scott Walker says "no." Opponents admit the governor might get his way. Even so, they're planning what could be a last-ditch effort to fight it.

Members of the Southside Organizing Committee and State Rep. JoCasta Zamarippa explain why Milwaukee should be allowed to require its workers to live in the city.

"The big thing is always if you live here, you would give us better service. And I think that is the fundamental argument for city residents, we want employees who are in it with us," said Steve Fendt of the Southside Organizing Committee.

"That is nearly insulting. Throughout my entire career, I worked, I lived on the far southwest side while working downtown or in the inner city or on the far north side and every time I had an assignment, I was committed to those neighborhoods," said Mike Crivello of the Milwaukee Police Association.

For years, Crivello and the Milwaukee Police Association have pushed for an end to the residency requirement. A statewide ban on such mandates is part of Gov. Walker's proposed budget. In the past, it was a stand-alone bill.

Zamarippa says supporters of the requirement must now try to convince lawmakers to get the proposal pulled from the budget.

"Getting the word out to the public so hopefully we can win in the court of public opinion, could very well influence legislators, influence the governor to take it out of the budget and put it in its own bill," said Rep. Zamarippa.

Crivello calls the requirement archaic and says lifting it is a matter of freedom for his officers and other city workers.

"It's the right thing for the community, it's the right thing for the families that serve this city," said Crivello.

Supporters of the residency requirement say it's hypocritical for Gov. Walker, a champion of small government, to push for a statewide act that would tell cities what they can or cannot do.

Republican State Senator Leah Vukmir says that assertion is nonsense because no government body should tell people where they have to live.