Choose says Rodney Mayo can’t run for mayor in opposition to Keith James
A Palm Seaside County Circuit Courtroom choose has dominated that enterprise proprietor Rodney Mayo cannot run for mayor of West Palm Seaside as a result of he didn’t meet the six-month residency requirement.
The ruling, issued on Tuesday, clears the trail to a different four-year time period for Mayor Keith James, as Mayo was the one candidate who filed to run in opposition to him.
“You possibly can’t run for mayor if you happen to do not stay right here,” James mentioned in an announcement launched after the ruling.
In an announcement posted to Fb, Mayo acknowledged the choose’s ruling and lamented the truth that James and a pair of West Palm Seaside commissioners, Shalonda Warren and Joseph Peduzzi, are actually unopposed of their quest for re-election.
Tuesday’s ruling successfully cancels the March 14 municipal election in West Palm Seaside as nobody up for re-election is opposed.
“There Ought to Be No Uncontested Elections in a Democracy!” Mayo wrote.
Enterprise proprietor, Keith James critic Rodney Mayo information to run for mayor of West Palm Seaside
West Palm Mayor Keith James sues Rodney Mayo, alleging his re-election opponent doesn’t stay in West Palm Seaside
He added: “Most of you understand I used to be not enthusiastic about working for Mayor. Nonetheless, I felt obligated to take action, witnessing the whole disregard for the residents’ voice by our present Mayor.”
Mayo, whose “Mayo for Mayor” indicators had already begun popping up within the metropolis, can enchantment Tuesday’s ruling, however he mentioned on Fb that “I’ve been suggested it will not be a clever choice” to enchantment due to the potential prices, which would come with placing up a bond to cowl the price of the election.
As an alternative, Mayo mentioned he’ll mount an effort to recall James.
“We wish to ship a message that we wish our metropolis again!” Mayo wrote. “We should have an election and have a selection in our future.”
He didn’t give specifics on the recall effort, writing that “we are going to notify you shortly on find out how to signal the petition and share it together with your neighbors.”
A Mayo-James marketing campaign had all the hallmarks of a battle royale.
Each candidates, who share a historical past of antipathy, have been more likely to be well-funded. Mayo might depend on his wealth, and James might faucet into the advantages of incumbency, which generally embrace in depth contacts in and help from sections of the enterprise group.
James was poised to level to explosive financial progress within the metropolis for the reason that coronavirus pandemic, his work to redevelop the largely Black Northwest group and his push for the development of extra reasonably priced housing.
Mayo had served as a spokesman of types for downtown enterprise house owners who have been sad with a number of the adjustments initiated by the James administration, together with increased downtown parking charges and the institution of a “cafe price” construction for companies that use city-owned area close to their property. Mayo had additionally been sharply vital of the hundreds of thousands the town has spent redeveloping the Sundown Lounge, a Twenties period supper membership that had served because the cultural coronary heart of the Northwest till it fell on laborious occasions and was closed.
Delays, value overruns and a authorized dispute over who ought to handle the lounge have marred the town’s effort to get it rebuilt and re-opened, and Mayo has pointed to it for example of the mayor’s poor management.
In December, not lengthy after Mayo filed paperwork to run for mayor, James filed go well with, arguing that Mayo lived in Lantana and was not eligible to run for mayor.
A candidate should stay within the metropolis constantly for the six months previous an election as a way to be eligible to run mayor.
The West Palm Seaside municipal election was scheduled to happen on March 14. To satisfy the residency requirement, a candidate for mayor must have been a resident since September 14.
Mayo mentioned he lived in an condo above one in every of his Clematis Road companies, and, beneath penalty of perjury, signed a marketing campaign submitting doc declaring that West Palm Seaside handle as his residence handle.
He scoffed at James’ go well with, mocking it as “ludicrous.”
However Circuit Courtroom Choose G. Joseph Curley Jr. didn’t share that evaluation, ruling that “Mayo owns a considerable water-front home within the City of Lantana, Florida which this courtroom finds to have been his everlasting authorized residence for no less than a number of years.”
Curley’s ruling notes that Mayo modified his driver’s license to indicate a West Palm Seaside residence handle on November 10, and he modified his voter registration handle on December 29.
“Documentary proof” offered by the Palm Seaside County Supervisor of Election’s Workplace “clearly established that Mayo didn’t actually legally change his domicile or everlasting authorized residence handle for voting functions till December 29, 2022, lower than two-weeks previous to the listening to,” Curley’s ruling states. “This date was nicely past the September 14, 2022 minimal everlasting residency qualifying date.”
Curley’s ruling additionally states that “regardless of Mayo’s assertion that quite a few folks knew about his use of the Clematis Road condo as his residence, he didn’t name a single individual to corroborate his testimony as to his use of the condo as his everlasting authorized residence.”
For James, the ruling means one other time period as mayor.
“I’m going to transition my re-election marketing campaign to a listening tour and exit and discuss to residents over the subsequent few months,” he mentioned in an announcement. “We are going to proceed the work that now we have performed for the final 4 years to enhance West Palm Seaside for all residents and companies. I’m honored and humbled to proceed my service as Mayor for the subsequent 4 years.”
It isn’t clear what, if any, prison publicity Mayo faces after having signed a marketing campaign doc claiming a West Palm Seaside handle as his residence handle.
In his Fb publish — Mayo didn’t reply to a textual content looking for remark Wednesday — the enterprise proprietor argued that he was uniquely certified to run for mayor.
“If a citizen like me who moved to Northwood in 1974, opened his first enterprise in 1987 on Clematis road, has ten companies working within the metropolis with an eleventh on the best way, owns a number of properties within the metropolis, has began a number of native charities and helped help people who misplaced their revenue attributable to COVID when the town didn’t do something doesn’t qualify to run for native workplace then what particular person would?” he requested.
Regardless of Mayo’s in depth connections to West Palm Seaside, his run for mayor was short-circuited by the requirement that he stay there.
Curley’s ruling acknowledged: “The Courtroom doesn’t discover his testimony that the Clematis Road condo was his everlasting authorized residence for the aim of assembly the six-month residency requirement to be credible. Fairly, the details surrounding the Lantana home are constant and supportive of the place of James that this Lantana residence was Mayo’s domicile and everlasting authorized residence on the time that the six-month residency requirement commenced and continued no less than to the dates he modified theaddress listed on his driver’s license on November 10, 2022 or when he modified his voter registration handle with (the election’s workplace) on December 29, 2022.”
Wayne Washington is a journalist protecting West Palm Seaside, Riviera Seaside and race relations at The Palm Seaside Publish. You possibly can attain him at wwashington@pbpost.com and observe him on Twitter @waynewashpbpost. Assist help our work; subscribe as we speak.
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