Boze moved to Kettering in July 2020 after he and his family had searched for a house for more than three years, he said.
To run for the mayor’s seat, the elections board rules stated that Boze had to live in the city for an entire year by the Aug. 19 deadline to file petitions. He met that requirement, and board records show that Boze filed his petition March 19, and that it was certified on May 3 for the November ballot.
However, the Kettering City Charter requires that a council member, including mayor, “shall have been a qualified elector of the city for at least one year immediately prior to filing a petition of candidacy or immediately prior to appointment. One who ceases to be such an elector shall immediately forfeit his or her office.”
Boze should not have filed his petition before July to meet that requirement.
“If we waited a few months, rather than filing in March, we would have been fine, but the guidance we were given never made us aware of this,” Boze wrote on his Facebook page that expressed his disappointment and also thanked his campaign workers and supporters.
“Though I will not be able to run, the mission to invest in other continues,” he said.
So far, three others have pulled petitions to run, including former state Sen. Peggy Lehner, who previously served as a Kettering councilwoman. She filed her petition on June 21; the board likely will vote on certification at its July meeting.
Michael Barnett, who previously has run for office, pulled a petition on June 1, and J’Anthony Williams pulled a petition on April 7 but neither has filed them, board of elections records show.
Mayor Don Patterson, first elected to the mayor’s post in 2005, is not eligible to run again in November due to term limits.
Credit: FILE
Credit: FILE
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