jeffnuttalx: Lorain Council waives residency requirement for new mayor?s top aide

LORAIN ? Chase Ritenauer?s first business day as mayor Tuesday was going poorly.

Ritenauer had spent the day with a skeleton staff until he could get City Council members to waive residency requirements and approve job descriptions for his top administrators.

?Being a mayor without a staff is not fun,? he told Council members at their Tuesday night meeting.

Council approved the job descriptions and waived the residency requirement for the safety-service director, but added a requirement that the director move to Lorain within a year. Ritenauer said that was a deal breaker for his top candidate for the job, whom he hopes to name today.

He asked for a do-over, minus the one-year stipulation.

?Vote the way you need to vote,? he said. ?But I?d appreciate a vote, if it can be reconsidered, up or down, on the entire residency rule.?

Council members complied, and only Councilman Bret Schuster, D-4th Ward, and Councilman Craig Snodgrass, D-8th Ward, voted against waiving the residency requirement. Snodgrass had initially proposed the one-year stipulation, saying it was a reasonable amount of time to move to Lorain.

Audience member and Lorain resident Harry Williamson agreed.

?If your wages and your salaries are coming out of the city of Lorain, then you should live in the city of Lorain,? he told Council members and Ritenauer.

A 2009 Ohio Supreme Court decision said municipal employees aren?t required to live in the communities where they work, and Auditor Ronald Mantini said 60 percent to 70 percent of city workers don?t live in Lorain, but Law Director Pat Riley said the court ruling didn?t apply to the safety and service director positions.

Most Council members said Ritenauer should be free to hire whomever he wanted.

?Tying his hands (on) Day One, I think, would be doing a disservice to what he was elected to do,? said Councilman Tim Howard, D-3rd Ward. ?If we see that this isn?t working, then my only concern is that he pull the plug on that situation immediately.?

Ritenauer is merging the safety and service director positions, which were separate under former Mayor Tony Krasienko. Ritenauer said the merger made sense because the director will be supported by an executive assistant and an executive assistant to the mayor, plus a secretary who will aid the mayor and director.

However, Councilman Brian Gates, D-1st Ward, said he?d consulted with past safety and service directors who disagreed with a merged position.

?It?s too big a responsibility for one position,? he said.

Ritenauer also is creating a chief of staff and human resources/risk management administrator, both of whom will report to the director. The positions were formerly deputy safety director and deputy service director titles that Ritenauer said didn?t accurately describe their job duties and led to a ?disjointed? and ?fragmented? administration.

He said the changes will not cost taxpayers more money and will improve service to residents and communication with Council.

Contact Evan Goodenow at 329-7129 or egoodenow@chroniclet.com.