YOUNGSTOWN — Using an argument similar to an unsuccessful one in 2021, an attorney for John White, a Youngstown mayoral candidate facing questions about his eligibility to run, wrote to the city’s law director that his client meets the criteria to be on the ballot.

Kenneth D. Myers, White’s attorney, wrote city Law Director Lori Shells Simmons that he wanted to help her with her pending decision on White’s eligibility.

At issue is a provision in the city charter that reads: “The mayor shall be an elector and resident of the city for the five years immediately preceding the mayor’s election, and not less than 30 years of age.”

White registered to vote Feb. 5, 2021.

Shells Simmons said Wednesday: “We are gathering what we need to give an official opinion. It’s going to be prepared because the (Mahoning County) Board of Elections is going to ask us and we’ll get it. We are preparing an opinion.”

When White attempted to run in 2021 for mayor as an independent — as he filed to do this year — Jeff Limbian, then the city’s law director, ruled June 12, 2021, that White wasn’t eligible to be a mayoral candidate based on his interpretation of the city charter and state law. The board of elections agreed with the decision on July 6, 2021, and didn’t certify White to the ballot.

Myers, who was White’s attorney in that case, objected and threatened legal action. But the matter was dropped when White voted in the Democratic primary after filing as an independent for mayor. Voting in a partisan primary after filing as an independent in Ohio disqualifies a candidate from running.

The board voted 4-0 to not certify White for voting in the primary and for violating the city charter.

As he argued in 2021, using the exact same language, Myers in a Monday letter to Shells Simmons wrote: “I believe that a common-sense reading of that section (of the charter) is that a person has to be 1) an elector, and 2) a resident of the city for five years. If the framers of the charter had intended for the requirements to be 1) an elector for five years and 2) a resident of the city for five years, they would have written it that way.”

Myers added the “charter cannot be read in a vacuum. The charter itself acknowledges that it shares authority with the state’s Constitution and statutes.”

Because the city charter doesn’t define the word “elector,” he pointed to Ohio Revised Code Section 3501.01(N), which defines it as “a person having the qualifications provided by law to be entitled to vote.” Myers wrote White has those qualifications under state law — being a citizen of at least 18 years of age, a resident and registered to vote for 30 days.

Myers wrote: “However, if the charter provision is interpreted to mean that Mr. White must live in Youngstown for five years and be an elector for five years, that provision would be in direct conflict with the Ohio Constitution and the state statutes cited above and would be open to legal challenge on constitutional grounds.”

In the letter, Myers pointed to a 1988 decision from Ohio’s 6th District Court of Appeals that overturned a lower court decision restricting “the eligibility of candidates based on residency and elector status” in Oregon, a city in Lucas County.

If the Youngstown charter, Myers wrote, is “interpreted to mean that Mr. White must be both a resident for five years and an elector for five years, he meets both criteria because, even though he was not registered to vote for five years, there is no real evidence that he lacked the qualifications provided by law to entitle him to vote. He has been legally eligible to vote for five years; he has merely not actually registered to vote.”

Myers added that “eligibility laws and rules are supposed to be liberally construed in favor of allowing people to run for office,” and “given the lack of definition of ‘elector’ in the charter and the ambiguity of Section 4 of the charter, Mr. White should be deemed eligible.”

In a Facebook post, White wrote: “Hopefully, this puts an end to all the controversy on my eligibility.”

WHITE ARREST

White was arrested Friday on felony counts of disrupting public service and domestic violence after allegedly causing damage and acting violent at a Liberty house he owns with his wife, Youngstown Councilwoman Amber White, I-7th Ward, because his mayoral eligibility is in question.

White was arraigned on the felonies and has a preliminary hearing set Wednesday in Girard Municipal Court.

He was ordered to not have any contact with the alleged victim — his wife.

In a police report and a 911 call from Amber White, she alleged John White became angry over a Friday article in The Vindicator that said his eligibility was being questioned.

“He’s going to be disqualified,” Amber White said on the 911 call.

She added: “It made front page news today and now he’s very upset because he cannot be in this election.”

The board of elections hasn’t made a decision on his eligibility and will wait for Shells Simmons’ legal opinion before meeting to determine his status.

Amber White told police she refused to run for mayor in his place as her husband requested. She would have to run as a write-in candidate.

When John White was deemed ineligible in 2021 for the position, Amber White ran as a write-in candidate.

The report and 911 call accuse John White of damaging their house and front yard at 1162 Tibbetts Wick Road in Liberty.

John White is alleged to have thrown a crockpot with food in it at his wife, missing her and having it go through the front window, according to the police report and 911 call. Also, Amber White told police her husband threw all of the car keys onto the garage roof and then, while she was on her cellphone with a 911 dispatcher, he took it and threw it into a watery ditch.

“He’s done this before,” she said during the call.

John White has more than 35 criminal convictions, according to various court documents, with felony convictions including receiving stolen property, aggravated assault, breaking and entering and being a felon in possession of a firearm.

He was sentenced to prison for the latter three convictions.

State law would permit White to run for mayor if he is certified, but as a felon he would not be permitted to hold elected office should he win. White has previously said his past convictions wouldn’t restrict him from holding the office.