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Wednesday, April 23, 2003

By Al Lowe, Tri-State Sports & News Service

Brentwood council voted 4-3 at Mayor Ken Lockhart's request to remove the residency requirement for borough police officers.

Too many new members have been leaving the force for other departments, the mayor said.

"When the opportunity comes to go somewhere else, they jump at it," he said. "We have become a training ground for other boroughs."

Deletion of the requirement will be made an addendum to the police contract.

"Something else needs to be done" to encourage them to stay, Mary Dytko said. "I don't think this is going to do it."

She, Ann Schade and council President Fred Swanson cast opposing votes.

"We're not giving them free rein to move anywhere they want to," Lockhart said, adding that the contract still requires residence within eight "air miles" of the borough or eight straight-line miles.

Council then decided to make the eight "air miles" requirement part of the original motion.

Swanson and Schade dissented on that.

Swanson explained the rationale for his votes this way: "It is very interesting they take our money but don't want to move here."

Resident John Ramirez said officers should want to move to Brentwood "because we're a nice community."

Lockhart said it was nothing against Brentwood, but the borough is only 1.5 square miles, and some officers had problems finding new homes.