City of Alton - Committee of the Whole Meeting
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ALTON – An effort to change Alton’s residency requirements for certain city employees is once again on hold.
At the Committee of the Whole meeting on May 26, 2026, Alderman Michael Velloff moved to lay over a resolution to amend a section of the Alton City Code regarding residency requirements for non-union city employees. His motion was seconded by Alderman Chris Bohn.
This comes just over two weeks after aldermen postponed a previous version of the resolution to 2029 before an updated version of the resolution was presented by Mayor David Goins for consideration this week. The mayor has previously said the goal of relaxing these residency requirements is to widen the city’s pool of qualified applicants for city staff positions.
Currently, all non-union city employees are required to reside within the boundaries of Alton School District #11. All union employees are allowed to stay within a six-county region including the Illinois counties of Madison, Jersey, Macoupin, and St. Clair, as well as St. Louis and St. Charles counties in Missouri.
The previous version of the resolution would have given both union and non-union city employees the same ability to reside within the six-county region. Velloff previously voiced concern that allowing department heads to live as far as St. Charles County would impact response times to emergencies concerning their departments.
Under the updated version of the resolution, non-union city employees would be allowed to reside within a 25-mile radius of their respective city building, including but not limited to City Hall, the police station, and the Public Works building.
Velloff and Bohn quickly laid the item over without further discussion, setting the stage for another vote at the next Committee of the Whole meeting on June 8, 2026.
A full recording of the May 26, 2026 Alton Committee of the Whole meeting is available at the top of this story or on Riverbender.com/video.
