Crafton Wants All Metro Employees to Live in Davidson Co.

Councilman Eric Crafton has filed a bill requiring all new Metro employees to be residents of the county they serve. Some departments like Police and Fire, have many employees that don’t live in Nashville.

Crafton’s bill would grandfather in all existing employees. So the requirement wouldn’t affect current police officer Heather Baltz, who lives in Robertson County. But she says it could impact the department’s ability to hire new officers.

“The police department at this point is just now coming back up to staffing and putting another constraint on those who are already in the department already would be detrimental for the department. I think we…wouldn’t be attracting more people, that’s for sure.”

Baltz’s husband is a firefighter. About 48 percent of the Fire Department’s employees live outside the county.