UNIVERSITY CITY, Mo. — Jeff Hales campaign for University City City Council is built on civility. He feels the council has been fractured and contentious since he has been attending meetings regularly in 2010.
“It’s incredibly important that council members listen to one another,” he said. “We may disagree but out of the fiercest disagreements come the best compromises.”
He’s known in U City for restoring historic homes. He’s invested in four rehabilitation projects and lived in two other houses he worked on himself. He’s the 35-year-old owner of the marketing agency, Adleap.
This is all pretty innocuous for a candidate that was kept off the ballot by the City Clerk Joyce Pumm. In the Feb. 6 St. Louis Circuit Court date, the City Attorney Katie Forster told Hales “as a candidate he was not entitled to due process.”
“That just floored me,” Hales said.
How did it get to this point? Hales filed all the necessary paperwork on the last day of filing on Jan. 21 including 73 signatures for the petition. The next day a citizen submitted a 13-page document complete with tax records detailing how Hales had not lived in U City for about a year.
“The person who filed a complaint is a friend and supporter of my opponent,” Hales said.
The documents were accurate. Hales lived in Clayton for a year while he was selling his house. However, he never established residency anywhere else in that time. He said he had even continued to attend city council meetings during that time.
Hales was informed of the situation and saw the documents. He was not sure what Pumm was going to do, but was told he would have a chance to provide testimony about the circumstances of his residency. Jan. 28 was the certification deadline. At 5:08 p.m. he received an email stating he was disqualified from the election.
Three days later, Hales met with attorneys who informed him physical presence was not a requirement to qualify as a resident for an election. He filed a lawsuit Feb. 3. Thanks to inclement weather, a hearing wasn’t held until Feb. 6. After hearing arguments, Judge Joseph Dueker granted a writ of mandamus allowing Hales back on the ballot.
“I’m really relieved,” Hales said.
Hales is running for the first ward seat against three-year incumbent Stephen Kraft. The election is April 8.
