COUNCIL BIDS FACE CHALLENGE

http://theadvocate.com/news/3719033-123/council-bids-face-challenge

COUNCIL BIDS FACE CHALLENGE

Baton Rouge Advocate,  8/25/12

Two candidates for East Baton Rouge Metro Council are facing lawsuits in state court that seek to have their names removed from the Nov. 6 ballot.

Gerry Juneau, a resident of District 12, filed suit Friday alleging that incumbent Rodney “Smokie” Bourgeois is ineligible to run for re-election because he lives outside the district.

Friday was the last day challenges could be filed against candidates to have their names removed from the ballot.

Juneau said he has nothing against Bourgeois but thinks he should run in District 10, where he owns a house.  “I just don’t think it’s right,” Juneau said. “If he wants to be a councilman so bad, why doesn’t he run in District 10?”  Bourgeois has owned a home at 2195 Kleinert Avenue since 1988, which is in District 10. But he represents and is running for re-election in District 12, where he leases a home.  District 12 includes the Kenilworth, Magnolia Woods, Pollard Estates, Southdowns and Valley Park neighborhoods.  Bourgeois lists the leased home, 1225 Highland Park, as his official residency in qualifying papers and on his voter registration card.
Bourgeois also claimed homestead exemption at the Kleinert home until 2009 when he became a Metro Councilman.  “It’s fairly clear that the homestead exemption was canceled because you must be registered to vote where you have homestead exemption, and he would have had to register to vote at Kleinert,” Juneau’s attorney Donald Hodge said. “That would have been District 10, not 12.”  Bourgeois said he doesn’t spend the majority of his time at any of his properties.  Records show that he pays the sewer utility bills at his Kleinert home and a man named Ryan Salario pays the sewer utility bills at the Highland Park home.

Bourgeois owns two George’s restaurants in District 12, one on Perkins Road and another on Highland Road.

Bourgeois questioned whether the suit was being filed by supporters of his best-financed competitor, John Delgado, or by someone in the food truck business, since he proposed earlier this year an ordinance to regulate the food truck industry. The ordinance failed.  Bourgeois said he is not breaking any law and is confident that he’ll prevail in court, but joked that being disqualified would be a favor.  “This is great news for me,” he said. “God bless Mr. Juneau.”

If Bourgeois is disqualified, then Delgado, a Republican, will face Rose Carey, a Democrat, in the election.Welch’s hearing will be Monday before Judge Bill Morvant and Bourgeois’ hearing will be Tuesday before Judge Tim Kelley.

2) Comment by Terd Handler - 08/25/2012

I certainly hope the DA pursues criminal charges against Smokie because he has fraudently been representing District 12 for the past four years. His counil votes have not represented the majority of District 12 residents. Now we know why....he isn't even one of us.

COUNCILMAN'S RESIDENCY CALLED INTO QUESTION

http://theadvocate.com/home/3701097-125/councilmans-residency-called-into-question#.UDkBinvcvp0.email
COUNCILMAN'S RESIDENCY CALLED INTO QUESTION
Baton Rouge Advocate, 8/25/12

John Delgado, who is running for District 12 Metro councilman, is raising questions about whether incumbent Rodney “Smokie” Bourgeois resides in the district he represents.  “Since I announced my candidacy, I have received dozens of phone calls and emails alerting me that Smokie doesn’t live in the district,” Delgado said. “I know that he claims to rent a house in District 12, but he actually owns a much nicer house on Kleinert Avenue in District 10.”

Bourgeois, who claims in qualifying documents and his voter registration that his official residence is 1225 Highland Park, said he isn’t breaking any rules.  “I have an officially signed and documented lease on that house,” Bourgeois said of the house on Highland Park. “I’m in full compliance with the law.”  He also owns a home in the Garden District at 2195 Kleinert Ave., which is in Council District 10, represented by Councilwoman Tara Wicker, near the boundary with District 12.  Asked what he considers his primary residence, Bourgeois said, “Where ever I feel like living. I’ve never kept a log.”  “I don’t have to live in that house all of the time,” he said of the Highland Park residence. “All that has to be is an official residence, and what I do with it is my business.”  When asked if he sublets his Highland Park house, Bourgeois said he does not. He later acknowledged that another man stays at the house “part time” and pays what Bourgeois described as “a pittance” to help with rent.  “It’s not a sublease, so to speak,” Bourgeois said. “If I want to move three or four people in there, that’s my right. But I also have a bed there, and I can wash my clothes there if I want.”  The person who receives the sewer bill at the Highland Park residence is Ryan Salario, according to records obtained through a public records request to the city-parish.  Asked about Salario, Bourgeois responded, “He’s a private individual.”  Bourgeois is listed as the recipient of the sewer bill at the Kleinert address.

Bourgeois has owned the Kleinert Avenue home since 1988, according to records. The last year he claimed homestead exemption on the Kleinert property was in 2008, the year before he took office. A homeowner can only claim homestead exemption on property he or she claims as a primary residence.  Bourgeois said he chose to stop taking the exemption, because “the city needs the money.”  According to state law, residents are supposed to register and vote where they claim homestead exemption.
The city-parish plan of government says Metro Council members must be qualified voters and residents of their district but doesn’t expressly define what constitutes residency.

Several court challenges have arisen over the years in Louisiana raising the issue of whether a particular elected official or candidate resides in the district he or she is running for but these generally have not been successful because state law defining legal residency is so loosely written.  Brandon Abadie, deputy clerk of court in East Baton Rouge Parish, said the office uses the voter registration address of candidates to determine whether they are running in the correct district. He said questions of residency are left to the courts to decide.  Delgado said he would not mount a legal challenge against Bourgeois’s residency.  “But I think the voters in District 12 should know the facts and decide for themselves whether this is acceptable to them.”
Delgado and Bourgeois, both Republicans, are being contested by Democrat Rose Carey in the Nov. 6 primary.  District 12 includes the Kenilworth, Magnolia Woods, Pollard, Southdowns, and Valley Park neighborhoods.

Friday is the deadline to challenge candidacy to get a name removed from the ballot.