The City Council is doing things a little differently these days, ever since Mathieu Eugene won the vote but failed to prove he met the residency requirements to take office.
After the re-run special election in April, before anybody is sworn in, they’ll have to submit documentation to the Council that they meet various requirements to hold office, including not only local residency, but U.S. citizenship.
That last part made one of Eugene’s backers, Una Clarke, incensed when I spoke with her recently.
“I would never ever allow him to do that,” she told me.
The information is public, she explained, and the Council staff should be able to get it themselves.
Clarke also had this to say: “I am angry about the issue because whenever you are an immigrant you have to go through more scrutiny than anybody else to make sure that you give to America what it gives to you in return. And how many other immigrants have they ever asked? Is it because he’s a black immigrant that he would have to do that? Is it because he’s a Haitian that he would have to do that? Or is it because he comes from the Caribbean that he be asked to do that?”
A spokesman for Eugene, Scott Levenson, indicated the candidate probably won’t be taking Clarke’s advice on this.
“Mathieu Eugene will gladly comply with any requests required by the Council in order to fill in the seat,” he said.
— Azi Paybarah