Each officer appointed by the Mayor or elected by the City Council to a cabinet level or Department Head position, and every person who for a period of more than one hundred eighty (180) days acts in place of such an officer, except those officers appointed by the Mayor under the provisions of subsection 5-5.6 of this chapter, shall be, or within the six (6) months next following the date of his acceptance of office shall become, both a resident and registered voter of the City of Boston and each such officer shall continue to be both a resident and a registered voter of the City of Boston during his term of office. This section shall not apply to those officers serving in positions without compensation except for reimbursement for expenses actually incurred in the performance of official duties, or to persons acting in place of such officers; nor shall this section apply to an officer appointed by the Mayor to the position of Department Head, or interim or acting Department Head, before January 1, 2016, who immediately, prior to such appointment, was a member of a collective bargaining unit and who, under the terms of the collective bargaining agreement, previously lived in the City for ten consecutive years during such employment but at the time of his appointment no longer resided in the City. If any such officer shall during his term of office remove from the City of Boston or cease to be a registered voter therein he shall be deemed to have become disqualified from holding his office as of the date of such removal or such cessation. Each officer affected by this section shall upon his acceptance of office or within the six (6) months next following thereupon, and annually on March first thereafter, in writing and under the penalties of perjury, certify to the City Clerk that he is both a resident and a registered voter of the City of Boston, and accompany such certification with two proofs of residency. A copy of every such certificate shall be transmitted by the City Clerk to the Office of Human Resources and the Boston Residency Compliance Commission within five (5) business days of filing. If, upon the expiration of the six (6) months next following his acceptance of office, and annually after March first thereafter, any such officer shall not have so certified to the City Clerk that he is both a resident and a registered voter of the City of Boston, or shall have so falsely certified, he shall be deemed disqualified from holding his office, and the City Clerk shall forthwith so notify the Mayor, the City Council, the Office of Human Resources and the Collector-Treasurer. Upon receipt of such notification the Collector-Treasurer shall strike from the payroll the name of any such officer and shall cause no further payments of salary or other compensation to be made thereto. A person who falsely certifies as to his residency shall be fined the sum of $300.00 for each such false certification filed. No person deemed disqualified hereunder shall be appointed or elected to any office subject to the provisions of this section for a period of five (5) years next after the date he becomes disqualified. This section shall not apply to any person in office on the date of the adoption of this section; provided, however, that this section shall apply to any such person upon the expiration of his current term of office whether or not his successor shall have been appointed or elected; and provided, further, that this section shall apply to any such person who shall be appointed or elected to another office to which this section applies upon the date of his acceptance of such other office. Those provisions of this section which require that an officer be a registered voter shall not apply to any person who is by law ineligible to vote if such person shall certify to the City Clerk his ineligibility and the reason therefor.
The Mayor, or his or her designee, may grant, by petition subject to ratification by the Residency Compliance Commission, a waiver of the residency requirement and its related provisions herein if the position to be filled requires a unique set of skills, which, without lifting the residency requirement, would render the position difficult to fill within a reasonable time. The petition to waive the residency requirement must be presented to the Residency Compliance Commission for ratification by a majority of its Commissioners. Such waiver may, at the discretion of the Mayor or his or her designee, be granted for the duration of the appointment or for such other limited duration, not to exceed thirty-six (36) months, after which the officer shall become a resident of the City of Boston and shall not cease to be a resident of the City of Boston.
(Rev. Ord. 1961 c. 3; Ord. 1973 c. 7; Ord. 1974 c. 11; CBC 1975 Ord. T5 § 101; Ord. 2014 c. 5; Ord. 2016 c. 2 § 1)