STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
1436
2013-2014 Regular Sessions
IN ASSEMBLY(Prefiled)
January 9, 2013
___________
Introduced by M. of A. ZEBROWSKI, ABBATE, MAISEL, RAIA, ABINANTI, GALEF,
MILLER, McDONOUGH, GUNTHER, JAFFEE, BOYLAND, SKARTADOS, ARROYO, COOK,
DenDEKKER, DINOWITZ, GLICK, MAGEE, PAULIN -- read once and referred to
the Committee on Governmental Operations
AN ACT to amend the retirement and social security law, in relation to
establishing a residency requirement for certain persons employed by
the state or its subdivisions
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. The retirement and social security law is amended by adding
2 a new section 79-a to read as follows:
3 § 79-a. Residency requirement for state officers, employees;
4 exceptions. 1. Every person holding an office, employment, or position
5 with the following entities shall maintain his or her principal resi-
6 dence in the state:
7 a. in the executive, legislative, or judicial branch of this state;
8 b. with an authority, board, body, agency, commission, or instrumen-
9 tality of the state including any state college, university, or other
10 higher educational institution, and, to the extent consistent with law,
11 any interstate agency to which the state is a party;
12 c. with a county, municipality, or other political subdivision of the
13 state or an authority, board, body, agency, district, commission, or
14 instrumentality of the county, municipality, or subdivision; or
15 d. with a school district or an authority, board, body, agency,
16 commission, or instrumentality of the district.
17 2. a. Subject to the provisions of paragraph d of subdivision three of
18 this section, the provisions of this section shall not apply to any
19 person who is employed:
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD00387-01-3
A. 1436 2
1 (1) on a temporary or per-semester basis as a visiting professor,
2 teacher, lecturer, or researcher by any state college, university, or
3 other higher educational institution, or county or community college; or
4 (2) in a full or part-time position as a member of the faculty, the
5 research staff, or the administrative staff by any state college,
6 university, or other higher educational institution, or county or commu-
7 nity college, that the college, university, or institution has included
8 in the report required to be filed pursuant to paragraph d of subdivi-
9 sion three of this section; or
10 (3) on a full-time basis by the state who serves in an office, employ-
11 ment, or position that requires the person to spend the majority of his
12 or her working hours in a location outside of this state.
13 b. The provisions of this section shall not apply to any person who
14 holds an office, employment, or position in this state on the effective
15 date of this section but does not have his or her principal residence in
16 this state on that effective date, provided such person continues to
17 hold office, employment, or position without a break in public service
18 of greater than seven days.
19 c. The fact that a person is domiciled in this state shall not by
20 itself satisfy the requirement of principal residency hereunder. For the
21 purposes of this subdivision, a person may have, at most, one principal
22 residence, and the state of a person's principal residence means the
23 state:
24 (1) where the person spends the majority of his or her non-working
25 time; and
26 (2) which is most clearly the center of his or her domestic life; and
27 (3) which is designated as his or her legal address and legal resi-
28 dence for voting.
29 3. a. Any person may request an exemption from the provisions of this
30 section on the basis of critical need or hardship from a five-member
31 committee hereby established to consider applications for such
32 exemptions. The committee shall be composed of five people, three of
33 whom shall be appointed by the governor, and one of whom shall be
34 appointed by the temporary president of the senate and one of whom shall
35 be appointed by the speaker of the assembly. Each appointee shall serve
36 at the pleasure of the person making the appointment and shall have a
37 term not to exceed five years. A vacancy on the committee shall be
38 filled in the same manner as the original appointment was made. The
39 governor shall make provision to provide such clerical, secretarial and
40 administrative support to the committee as may be necessary for it to
41 conduct its responsibilities pursuant to this subdivision.
42 b. The decision on whether to approve an application from any person
43 shall be made by a majority vote of the members of the committee, and
44 those voting in the affirmative shall so sign the approved application.
45 If the committee fails to act on an application within thirty days after
46 the receipt thereof, no exemption shall be granted and the residency
47 requirement of this subdivision shall be operative.
48 c. The following persons shall not be eligible to request from the
49 committee an exemption from the provisions of this subdivision:
50 (1) the head of a department of the executive branch of the state
51 government; or
52 (2) a justice of the supreme court, judge of the superior court and
53 judge of any inferior court established under the laws of this state.
54 d. The exemption provided in subparagraph two of paragraph a of subdi-
55 vision two of this section shall apply only to those persons holding
56 positions that the college, university, or institution has included in a
A. 1436 3
1 report of those full or part-time positions as a member of the faculty,
2 the research staff, or the administrative staff requiring special exper-
3 tise or extraordinary qualifications in an academic, scientific, techni-
4 cal, professional, or medical field or in administration, that, if not
5 exempt from the residency requirement, would seriously impede the abili-
6 ty of the college, university, or institution to compete successfully
7 with similar colleges, universities, or institutions in other states.
8 The report shall be compiled annually and shall also contain the reasons
9 why the positions were selected for inclusion in the report. The report
10 shall be compiled and filed within sixty days following the effective
11 date of this section. The report shall be reviewed, revised as neces-
12 sary, and filed by January first of each year thereafter with the gover-
13 nor, the temporary president of the senate and the speaker of the assem-
14 bly. A report may be revised at any time by filing an amendment to the
15 report with the governor, the temporary president of the senate and the
16 speaker of the assembly.
17 4. Any person holding any office, employment, or other position in
18 this state who attempts to let, farm out or transfer such office,
19 employment, or position or any part thereof to any person, shall forfeit
20 the sum of fifteen hundred dollars, to be recovered with costs by any
21 person who shall sue for the same, one-half to the prosecutor and the
22 other half to the comptroller for the use of the state.
23 5. Any person holding or attempting to hold an office, employment, or
24 position in violation of this section shall be considered as illegally
25 holding or attempting to hold the same; provided that a person holding
26 an office, employment, or position in this state shall have one year
27 from the time of taking the office, employment, or position to satisfy
28 the requirement of principal residency, and if thereafter such person
29 fails to satisfy the requirement of principal residency as defined here-
30 in with respect to any three hundred sixty-five-day period, that person
31 shall be deemed unqualified for holding the office, employment, or posi-
32 tion. The supreme court shall, in a civil action, give judgment of
33 ouster against such person, upon the complaint of any officer or citizen
34 of the state, provided that any such complaint shall be brought within
35 one year of the alleged three hundred sixty-five-day period of failure
36 to have his or her principal residence in this state.
37 6. No person shall be appointed to or hold any position in this state
38 who has not the requisite qualifications for personally performing the
39 duties of such position in cases where scientific engineering skill is
40 necessary to the performance of the duties thereof.
41 § 2. This act shall take effect on the one hundred twentieth day after
42 it shall have become a law.
