City of Alton - Committee of the Whole Meeting
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ALTON – Plans to relax residency requirements for certain Alton city employees are now on hold for the next three years.
Committee of the Whole members voted 4-3 on May 11, 2026 to postpone a resolution to consider amending a section of the City Code regarding residency requirements for city employees until April 11, 2029.
Under the current City Code, Alton’s non-union employees are required to primarily reside within Alton School District 11, while union employees are allowed to reside within a much broader six-county region. The proposed amendment would allow both union and non-union workers to reside within the same six-county region, which includes the Illinois counties of Madison, Jersey, Macoupin, and St. Clair, as well as St. Louis and St. Charles counties in Missouri.
The change seeks to “provide consistency and fairness to employees” while widening the talent pool for city staff positions, the resolution states. Mayor David Goins has previously stated his desire to loosen Alton’s residency requirements to ease the city’s employee recruitment and retention efforts, which he and City Council Coordinator Beth Bear reiterated at this week’s meeting.
Alderman Michael Velloff moved to postpone the resolution until April 11, 2029 to allow the proposed rule change to apply to the next mayoral administration. Goins and Bear said the issue demands immediate attention.
“The reality is that we’re having issues with recruitment now, not just in 2029,” Bear said. “While I appreciate the desire to have people in the office and to have people part of a community, I don’t think that residency is the only way to make this happen ... rising house prices make it difficult to insist upon a relocation for what could potentially only be four years.”
She added: “If we are trying to find the best and brightest people to work here for the city, we need to have a wider pool of applicants.”
Velloff said he believes department heads, such as the Director of Public Works, should live in the city to respond to certain emergencies that may arise. Bear said the city’s police and fire personnel are currently not required to live in the city.
Mayor Goins added that several surrounding municipalities don’t have such strict residency requirements, and that this change is part of an effort to keep the city competitive while making the hiring process less “confusing.”
Alderwomen Rosie Brown, Stephanie Elliott, and Martha Pfister each voted against postponing the resolution until 2029, while Aldermen Velloff, Chris Bohn, John Meehan, and Alderwoman Patricia Ford voted in favor.
A full recording of the May 11, 2026 Alton Committee of the Whole meeting is available at the top of this story or on Riverbender.com/video.
