Updated Data On Baltimore City Employee Residency Status

About six months ago, I put up a post analyzing some of the statistics about the residency status of Baltimore City employees. The city had recently updated its data as of end of June, and I am putting up updated statistics below.

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The Baltimore Sun has an article about the figures here. What is more interesting is the following quote:

Maryland law prohibits the city and counties from imposing residency requirements, although for some job openings Baltimore gives higher consideration to applicants who live in the city. 

As many things in the media, this is not entirely true. The city actually is allowed to impose residency requirements for heads of departments and board members. As per the city charter, Article IV, section 6i:

All heads of departments and bureaus, including presidents of boards and commissions, provided for by this Charter or any other law, and appointed by the Mayor or by the governing board of the department, shall be residents and registered voters of Baltimore City at the time of their appointment and shall remain residents and registered voters during their entire term of office.

The following note in the charter explains the details:

Editor’s Note: Article 24, §1-107 of the Maryland Code (as enacted by Ch. 619, Acts of 1995, and subsequently broadened by Ch. 426, Acts of 1997), provides, among other things, that a political subdivision “may not require an employee to reside within [the subdivision or] the State or within a required distance of [the subdivision or] the State as a condition of employment” {§ 1-107(b)(1)}.
The sole exceptions are for “elected official[s], department head[s], or an  administrator” {§ 1-107(a)(4)}. For this purpose, “administrator” is narrowly defined to mean “the chief administrative officer” of the political subdivision {§ 1-107(a)(2)}. “Department head”, in turn, is limited to “the head of a separate unit of [the political subdivision] who reports directly to [the] elected executive or administrator or directly to the governing body of the [political subdivision” {§ 1-107(a)(3)}.

This means that even if the city wanted to, it cannot impose residency requirements on all city employees except for department heads and similar positions. This should provide an answer to those that want such requirement imposed.