WHERE THE STREETS HAVE NO NAME
It’s definitely official now. District 15 City-County Councilor Patrice Abduallah doesn’t live in his district. On his declaration of candidacy filed with the Marion County Clerk Abduallah lists his address as 1144 N. Warman, which is in District 14. A district occupied by Marylin Pfisterer.
The form was flied with the clerk on January 24, 2007. Under state law a Councilor must reside in his district at least two years before filing, so this brings his eligibility for the office into question. And to make matters worse, under state law a Councilor must give up his seat once he no longers lives in his District. And to add insult to injury, the Clerk’s office told Abdulallah that his residency addresses on his voter registration form did not match the one on his candidacy form, however Abdulallah did not file an amendment to his candidacy form.
If we go by the form filed in the Clerk’s office, Abduallah should have stepped down eight months ago.
This brings into serious question, all his votes that have been cast since then and whether they were valid. In addition, there were a number of party-line votes of 15-14 that are now suspect, including the public safety tax which was passed in July.
City officials say they’re confident this issue will be resolved once all the facts come out and don’t think it will have much impact on past votes.
It’s nice to know they’re so confident with everything they’ve worked for this year potentially in jeopardy.
