City Council has changed the pre-hiring residency requirement that forced people to live in Philadelphia prior to getting hired by the city. Philadelphia is the only major city in the country that still had such a residency requirement for Civil Service employees.

Councilman James F. Kenney has spent the last seven years trying to do away with this law and finally has with a 10-7 vote today. The new law was championed by Mayor Nutter because before students who moved from outside the city to go to college at one of Philadelphia’s 83 higher education centers, but did not change their permanent address, were unable to immediately work for the city after graduation.

This was particularly hurtful to Drexel students because there are many co-op slots at city positions, but students would have had to make arrangements if they wanted to continue at one of these co-op spots after graduation.

The new bill still requires that city employees be Philadelphia residents, but now outsiders that are hired have six months after their start date to move into the city.

Source: Inquirer Article
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