Before 1986, the residency requirement for members of the St. Bernard Fire Department was simply a departmental rule requiring that each employee remain a "bona fide" resident of the City of St. Bernard. In 1986, the State of Ohio passed legislation requiring contracts for all public employees. The firefighters' union used this as an opportunity to try to seek a modification to the residency requirement for its members. Through a series of legal maneuvers over a 10-year period, the city was able to avoid negotiating the issue of residency with the firefighters' union but the resulting negativity needs attention. The purpose of this research paper is to prepare a policy analysis on the residency issue as it pertains to the City of St. Bernard. This research paper uses descriptive and evaluative research methods to answer the following questions: 1. Do the citizens of St.Bernard support a residency requirement? 2. How do the city employees feel about the current residency requirement? 3. Should the city eliminate or modify the residency requirement? Most residency issues are usually a battle of public vs. private interest. With that in mind two surveys--a citizen's survey and an employee's survey--were designed, developed, conducted and analyzed to help answer the three research questions. Survey data clearly indicates that the citizens of St. Bernard support a residency requirement and expect city employees to be residents. The data show the majority of the respondents to the employee's survey willingly accept the residency requirement and feel it to be beneficial. However, ambiguity exists as to what constitutes residency since two fired police officers were recently reinstated as the result of arbitration rulings.It is, therefore, recommended the city should acknowledge the two-household lifestyle as acceptable, but place qualifying factors on that living arrangement that reflects the overall objective of the residency requirement.