This report is in continuation to exclusive coverage by WTOP.
Some parents and voters in Prince George’s County have reacted with outrage after finding out a school board member has spent essentially all of this year working for a school system in Ferguson, Missouri, while maintaining his elected office in Maryland.
They were quick to point out a state law that said school board members are required to live in the district they represent, making it — in their minds — impossible for someone to hold a full-time job that requires them to work in-person halfway across the country.
In the court of public opinion, they might have a case. In a court of law, they might not. It turns out where you live is where you live, even if you’re not really living there all the time.
“We all think we know where we live, but it gets awfully complicated,” said Donald Tobin, an election law expert and law professor at the University of Maryland’s Carey School of Law in Baltimore. “Once we have a domicile or residence, that is our domicile or residence until we have successfully changed that to a different domicile or residence. Going somewhere else doesn’t necessarily change that domicile or residence.”
Then, he provided an example that could really resonate in the D.C. region.
“If you think about, in the Washington area, especially, somebody could live in Arizona and they could decide to join an administration that took over in Washington and become a person who works in government for eight years. And they could have a place that they lived in, in Washington, but they didn’t necessarily give up their state’s domicile. They might still have a house. They might intend to return. And so they’re actually still a resident of that original state for tax purposes and other purposes,” Tobin said.
Concerns about residency have long followed elected leaders in the county, and not just on the school board. These kinds of cases pop up all over the country, and Tobin isn’t saying it’s right, even if it’s technically legal.
“That’s what’s sort of confusing, and also a little bit troubling, I think to people, is that they expect that their representatives from a particular district don’t just reside in the technical sense in the district, but also are there (as) a part of the district and are engaged with the district,” Tobin said. “And so you can have a disconnect and say, ‘well, technically the person resides in a certain place,’ but also have a practical recognition that the person who is not available and not in a place is probably not best suited for the job. And so those are two different things.”
But owning property, as Prince George’s County Board of Education District 1 representative David Murray still does in Laurel, and even staying registered to vote, helps satisfy the legal requirements needed to claim you’re a resident somewhere — whether you really are or aren’t. Time spent somewhere doesn’t.
“If you are going somewhere to work, three, five, I would argue, eight years, but that is not the place that you intend to be permanently, I think there’s a strong argument you continue to reside in that original place,” Tobin said.
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