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Saginaw City Council Candidate's Tax Delinquency Is Overlooked at City Hall

 
By Robert E. Martin

     Lately it has become more apparent than ever that the Saginaw City Council and officials at City Hall have difficulty in following the City Charter.
 
First they extend the time period for selecting replacements beyond what is mandated; secondly, they improperly fire a City Manager by adopting the language 'terminate' instead of 'suspend' in the wording of their motion; and now it appears City officials have trouble enforcing requirements of the Charter as it pertains to candidates running for City Council.
 
The City Charter clearly states, "No person in default to the city shall be eligible for election or appointment to any city office".
 
In following through on this edict, City Clerk Diane Herman refused to certify three candidates on the Tuesday, November 8th ballot because they were indeed delinquent.
 
Moreover, candidates are required to sign an affidavit of eligibility, which certifies they are not in default for parking tickets, water bills, income tax, property taxes, or other assessments owed to the City of Saginaw.
 
The Review has discovered, however, that the Rev. Otis Washington apparently slipped under the radar screen.  
 
A review of city property tax records shows that Washington was delinquent for $853.88 on his 2005 summer property taxes, 236.45 for the 2004 winter taxes, and $613.64 for the 2004 summer breakdown.
 
Because delinquent taxes revert to the County level, The Review phoned the Saginaw County Treasurer's office and discovered that Washington came in to pay his delinquent 2004 taxes on October 12th, one week after the certification deadline. 
 
According to the County, 2005 taxes are not technically delinquent until March of 2006.  However, Washington also submitted an affidavit to the City stating that no monies were due one week before his payment.
 
When The Review contacted Herman to discern whether or not Washington would be eliminated from the November ballot as the other three candidates were, she admitted surprise, noting this was the first she had heard of it.
 
In the instance of past due property taxes, Herman said a request was sent to Assistant City Treasurer Sophia Snow.
 
"I sent correspondence to all city departments asking for information on delinquencies regarding any candidate running for office, and nothing came back on Mr. Washington," explains Herman.
 
According to Saginaw County Clerk Susan Kaltenbach, Herman contacted her office the minute she became aware that the delinquency existed past the filing deadline.
"This is a mess," admits Kaltenbach, "and its one of the prime reasons that I've been pushing all the municipalities within the County to move their filing deadlines earlier.  As it stands right now, the test ballots have been printed, the absentee voter ballots have been printed, and to eliminate Mr. Washington from the ballot would be far too costly."
 
"In the city's defense," notes Kaltenbach, "they are incredibly short-staffed, so were undoubtedly scurrying to meet the certification deadline, and obviously this incident slipped through the cracks."
 
But wouldn't State Election law and issues of fairness supersede the cost involved in reprinting ballots?
 
"I spoke with the State of Michigan about this," continues Kaltenbach, "and unfortunately the determination is based upon a combination of state election law and the requirements set up in the City Charter. From the state's perspective, the election is November 8th, and once candidates are certified the focus is based upon filing & printing deadlines."
 
"Mr. Washington could always withdraw from the race as other candidates have done, but according to the State whether Mr. Washington could be considered a valid candidate or not is up to the City Attorney."
 
According to the State, because Washington did sign a compliance statement, any falsehoods could be considered an act of perjury.
 
According to City Clerk Herman, Thomas Fancher, the City Attorney has decided to let Washington remain on the ballot.

 
"The problem is that we sent all candidates discovered to have delinquencies a notice by mail, so they had a window of opportunity to bring any delinquent payments current.  It wouldn't really be fair to not allow all candidates the same opportunity.  As it stands, Mr. Washington is now current."
 
"And of course nothing is holding Mr. Washington back from withdrawing from the race."
Given the competing interests of fairness to redeem on the one hand and City Charter mandates as it applies to elections on the other, the Review contacted City Attorney Thomas Fancher about the dilemma.
 
"The problem is that none of the candidates that were invalidated had any delinquencies pertaining to property taxes," explains Fancher.
 
"But the confusion came in with the nature of property taxes as they apply to the City.  2003 and 2004 taxes have already been paid to the City by the County, so the City may or may not have to pay delinquencies back."
 
"Because the Treasurer interpreted the debt in this instance to be one that applied to the County and not the City, nothing came back on Rev. Washington's delinquencies, so there are two schools of thought on this.  Technically, he was still in default at the time of the certification, even though it didn't show up on our books due to the way property tax revenues are handled by the County."
 
"When Rev. Washington's delinquency was discovered, it was decided to give him the same window for repayment that other candidates were given, even though none of their arrears pertained to property taxes."
 
When the Review contacted Rev. Washington about this controversy, he had this to say:
"First of all, you need to keep this in perspective. The day I went into file I was prepared to put my $50.00 down to enter the race and was told by the City Clerk that if I had any defaults to the City I would have to make arrangements to bring them up to date."
 
"I was prepared to put my money back into my wallet, because I knew I had some back taxes to pay, but was told that they weren't due until March of 2006 and it wouldn't become an issue until then.  At that point, I went ahead and filed to become a candidate."
 
"Later, I received a phone call telling me that I might want to make sure my 2004 taxes were brought up to date, which surprised me, because I thought I had paid them.  Consequently, I went down to the County and brought the 2004 taxes up to date."