CAMPBELL — The Campbell law director determined Dennis Puskarcik isn’t eligible to run for city council president because he doesn’t meet the residency requirement in the city charter.

A decision on Puskarcik’s eligibility will be made by the Mahoning County Board of Elections after a Monday hearing.

In the past, the elections board has followed the legal opinions of city law directors when it comes to interpreting its charter documents.

Section 2.05 of the Campbell charter states: “Each member of council shall be a qualified elector of the municipality and shall have resided therein or in a territory annexed thereto for a period of at least two years immediately prior to the date of filing of his declaration of candidacy for such office and shall continue to reside therein during his term.”

Campbell Mayor George Levendis, who is running for his previous position of council president, requested Law Director Lamprini G. Mathews look at Puskarcik’s eligibility.

Levendis and Puskarcik are the only two candidates to file for council president by the June 25 deadline and were certified July 8 by the board of elections to the Nov. 4 ballot.

In an Aug. 4 legal opinion, Mathews wrote that, based on board of elections records, Puskarcik registered as an elector in Campbell on Sept. 18, 2023, which is less than two years beforee he filed to run for council president.

Mathews wrote: “Since it is undisputed Mr. Puskarcik registered to vote on Sept. 18, 2023, and has not the requisite two years as an elector of the municipality immediately prior to the date of filing his declaration of candidacy, he is disqualified from being an eligible council president candidate in the November 2025 election.”

Mathews wrote Puskarcik “cannot achieve candidate status until Sept. 18, 2025.”

Mathews added: “The city determined the two-year requirement applies to both elector and resident based upon well-established statutory construction principles. The Writing Center, Georgetown University Law Center has a Guide to Reading, Interpreting and Applying Statutes, which reads ‘(a)nd’ typically signifies a conjunctive list, meaning each condition in the list must be satisfied. Therefore, hypothetically, the drafter of the charter should have written ‘a resident for two years and an elector’ if the intent was to apply the time limit to only residency.”

It’s similar language to what Youngstown Law Director Lori Shells Simmons wrote in a June 27 legal opinion that John White, who was running for Youngstown mayor, wasn’t eligible under that city’s charter to be a candidate because of a provision that requires him to “be an elector and resident of the city for the five years immediately preceding the mayor’s election.”

White registered to vote Feb. 5, 2021, so Shells Simmons ruled he wasn’t eligible with the elections board unanimously agreeing to not certify him to the ballot.

A longtime council president, Levendis was elevated to mayor shortly after the April 2 death of Bryan K. Tedesco, who was serving his second term in that position.

Levendis said he had no interest in running for mayor and filed again for council president.

Puskarcik also filed for council president.

He could not be reached Friday to comment.

Puskarcik is a former Campbell police chief who resigned in January 2019 and was subsequently found guilty in Campbell Municipal Court in February 2020 to a reduced misdemeanor charge of disorderly conduct and fined $150. He was initially charged with a misdemeanor count of menacing.

Also on Monday, the board will rule on the certification of numerous nonpartisan candidates, including township trustees and those running for school boards, as well as tax levies and liquor options.