Conaway's Residency Scandal Highlights Problems With Baltimore City Council

Despite Baltimore City Councilwoman Belinda Conaway's attempt to sue her residence controversy into oblivion, the issue is not going away.

Due to reporting by Adam Meister, a blogger at The Examiner, it looks like Baltimore City Councilwoman Conaway not only does not have her primary residence in the district she represents, but it isn't even in the city which contains that district.

Living in the district you represent is a requisite for serving on the Baltimore City Council. To some in power this may seem like an arbitrary regulation. But to Baltimore city residents, it is a practical way to ensure that their elected city representatives are more invested in the communities they represent. But problems arise when we have politicians with multiple residences.

Conaway claims to reside at her father's home in in Northwest Baltimore. However, the Baltimore Sun has pointed out that that she has signed a 1997 affadavit claiming a house in Randallstown as her primary residence and received a homstead tax credit for it.

Conaway's "Attorney Thomas J. Maronick Jr. said the councilwoman and her husband signed the document "inadvertently."

If this was inadvertent, it was inadvertent at least four times over the course of a decade. According to Baltileaks, "[Conaway] made the same 'oversight' 4 different times? 1997, 2001 [.pdf], 2006 [.pdf], and 2010." 

While many Baltimore residents believe that their city council member's primary residence must be in their district, according to The Baltimore Sun, "State law grants elected officials wide latitude in declaring an official address."

According to a 1998 court ruling by Special Appeals Judge John C. Eldridge, “The requirement is that one must be domiciled in the district, and domicile is not synonymous with primary place of abode.” So that means as long as Conaway has a residence in her district, even if it is not her primary residence, she's not in violation of the law.

With a handful of other residency controversies going on in Baltimore's City Council (Rochelle “Rikki” Spector, William “Pete” Welch, Warren Branch, and Council President Bernard C. “Jack” Young), now is the time for legislators to establish stricter and clearer residency parameters for our city's elected officials.

Comments

[Justin Sirois]

Where does this leave Adam?

[BaltoMom]

Adam should prevail. Nothing he said was false.

I don't think that the same ruling would necessarily apply to Baltimore City. The City's requirements for eligibility say you must reside in the City and in the District in which you serve. If Baltimore City's attorney's are siding with the judge, then we need to change the verbiage to make sure that the language meets the spirit of the reuqirement that every City Council Member's primary residence, where they live the majority of the year, be within Baltimore City boundaries AND within the boundaries of the district for which they are elected to serve. This city deserves at LEAST that.