Lake commissioner defensive about his home outside district
A basketball hoop and several bikes sit on the freshly mowed lawn at Lake County Commissioner Tim Sullivan’s home in a Leesburg neighborhood wrapping around a lake.
The house lies outside the district from which he ran in 2012, so he filed paperwork listing an address for an apartment inside the district.
Sullivan, who is now seeking re-election,
has come under fire since the Orlando Sentinel recently reported that he has been living in the house outside district lines and paying rent for the mostly empty apartment in an effort to meet residency requirements.
“He should have the decency to step down from that post,” said Bill Anderson of Leesburg, who filed a complaint about Sullivan with the state Division of Elections. “I do not accept his politics and don’t understand how he can go to the voters and seriously ask to be re-elected.”
Sullivan said he has done nothing wrong: “I believe that I am and have always been in compliance with the law in regard to my resi- dence.”
Through the years, candidates elsewhere in Central Florida have battled similar complaints. Courts have considered factors including whether the candidate lives in the home with a spouse and whether the address is used on bank accounts and documents such as a drivers license, voterregistration card or property homestead exemption.
The homestead exemption came into play in 2012 when questions were raised about Winter Springs Commissioner S. Avery Smith’s residency. She said she had lived in the city for six years but was found to have claimed a homestead exemption on a Casselberry residence for several years. Smith, who had been appointed to fill a vacancy, was forced to pay more than $3,000 in back taxes for im- properly claiming the homestead exemption. She was defeated for the seat later that year.
Vibert White, an associate professor at University of Central Florida, was denied a spot on the 2010 ballot for Orlando’s District 5 race against then-Commissioner Daisy Lynum because he couldn’t prove he had been a resident and a registered voter in the district for at least a year. White unsuccessfully sued the city, claiming the requirements weren’t constitutional.
In 1994, a judge disqualified Orange County School Board candidate Dave Stewart after ruling he failed the residency requirement. Stewart signed a lease for an apartment in the district, and his attorney told the judge that ’’the law says the residence is wher- ever you say it is.’’ Stewart unsuccessfully challenged the ruling.
The lawyer who litigated this case, Bruce Blackwell, now CEO of The Florida Bar Foundation, said sorting out residency issues can be difficult.
“A large portion of this issue is very subjective, so it’s hard to get very solid ground and prove without a doubt where someone is living,” he said.
County elections offices in Central Florida don’t verify the addresses where candidates say they live. Nor is proof of address required. The controversy surrounding Sullivan has raised questions about the system to vet candidates.
UCF professor Barry Edwards, who teaches constitutional law and is an expert on election laws and politics, said the system could use changes.
“It makes sense that a candidate should have to at least show the same proof of residence that people have to show at the DMV,” Edwards said.
Orlando and Kissimmee do require extensive proof from candidates about where they live, including a drivers license, homestead exemption or records with the property appraiser’s and tax collector’s offices.
For his part, Sullivan claims the homestead exemption on his Park Drive house in Lake County Commission District 3. Lake County Property Appraiser Carey Baker said he will be looking into whether Sullivan’s home outside the district is his permanent residence.
Sullivan also registers his vehicles at the Park Avenue address, has mail delivered there and uses it on his drivers license. He used the address on a fishing license he bought in August.
The retired Army National Guard brigadier general said he uses both the home and apartment as residences. He said the apartment is empty because he recently sold the living room furniture and is looking to purchase new items. He said he spends time there but hasn’t recently.
“I plan to continue serving Lake County and its constituents with their best interests at heart, just like I’ve been doing for the past 31⁄2 years, and that’s exactly the way I’ll continue,” he said. “There’s no legal requirement that I can’t have two residences.”