Former Princeton City Manager Mike Mashburn got away with a dodge that should have been termed unacceptable.

Mashburn was hired by the City Council to help establish a budget that would fall on the shoulders of the city’s 40,000 resident to pay. The city manager wasn’t one of them. He lived far outside the city limits, thus absolving himself of any fiscal responsibility for what he was asking the rest of us to pay.

The next city manager must not be allowed to wriggle off the fiscal hook in such a manner. Mashburn quit the city manager’s job after serving in that role for fewer than two years. The guy didn’t even live within Princeton’s extraterritorial jurisdiction. And yet, he was crafting a municipal budget that would be paid for fully by the rest of us.

This exemption bothered a number of residents, many of whom sought an amendment to the city charter that would require the manager to live within the city limits.

Just as maddening as the residency exemption was to many of us, Mashburn was able to negotiate a monthly travel allowance based solely on the city manager having to drive to work every day.

Let’s get real, shall we? The City Council makes precisely one hiring decision: it’s the city manager. The next individual who ends up managing the growth of the nation’s fastest-growing city should have to live here and share the burden he or she is asking the rest of us to bear. It’s a requirement that doesn’t need a charter amendment to give it standing.