Cops, Lynn tussle over required residency

LYNN – A Lynn Police Association attorney says the city’s labor lawyer is purposely stalling a Superior Court case that could free Lynn firefighters and police from the current employee residency requirement by making it part of the collective bargaining process.Susan Horwitz of the Boston law firm Sandulli Grace contends the city’s so-called live-where-you-work law should be a subject for collective bargaining.David Grunebaum, the city’s labor lawyer, has championed the opposing viewpoint, arguing that the courts rather than the Joint Labor Management Committee (JLMC) have jurisdiction.The JLMC is a forum, under the auspices of the state Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development, to resolve disputes between municipal managers and their police officers and firefighters, as well as to discuss issues of common concern.Horwitz said in an Oct. 26 letter to Grunebaum that Grunebaum vowed last April to file a complaint and motion in Superior Court, asking the judge to rule that Lynn’s residency law cannot be reviewed by an arbitrator.”As of June 2010, you had not filed anything,” wrote Horwitz, adding that both sides met again on June 17 to see if there was a way to reach a new labor contract that would include the residency issue. “The parties were still unable to reach an agreement and you stated you would file the complaint within 30 days. It is now Oct. 26 and nothing has been filed.”Mayor Judith Flanagan Kennedy, who voted against the residency law in 1999 when she was a city councilor, said Grunebaum’s documents are being reviewed before submission to Superior Court.”We are working on the submission for court relative to the residency tussle,” the mayor said.City Solicitor Michael Barry repeatedly has stated that the courts on four occasions have upheld Lynn’s residency requirement and declared it constitutional.The residency provision is contained in the city charter, adopted in 1979, but does not apply to schoolteachers, school nurses and administrators, and therapists who hold a professional degree with an associated state license.However, it does apply to police officers and firefighters hired after 1979, and to janitors, secretaries and other non-professional School Department employees.In 2005, then-mayor Edward Clancy Jr. began enforcing the law by having employees submit proof of local residency through tax and utility bills, mortgage statements and other documents.Horwitz said other cities, including Boston, have compromised on residency, requiring police officers to live a certain number of years in the community where they work before the residency law no longer applies. Under Massachusetts law, state police must live within 15 miles of the community where they work.Last August, 17 Lynn police officers and firefighters were under orders from the city’s five-member Residency Compliance Commission to produce proof of residency. Any employees found out of compliance are presumed to have voluntarily terminated their jobs.Police Chief Kevin Coppinger said Lynn police officers seldom sought transfer to other municipal departments prior to the stepped-up residency enforcement.”Most got on and stayed, unless they left out of choice to become state troopers,” he said. “Prior to 2000, transfers were minimal.”At least 10 Lynn police officers have left the department since 2000 and most mentioned during their exit interviews that the residency requirement was a major factor in their decision, according to the chief.Coppinger said he has always lived in Lynn and became more entrenched as his children enrolled in school and local sports. However, other Lynn police officers then junior in rank to Coppinger chose to move out of the city before the residency requirement was imposed, and are now exempt.”The city won’t bargain because they say it isn’t bargainable,” the chief said.Law Department attorney James Lamanna said the city and the Lynn Police Association have reached an impasse.””They can’t agree on a new collective