ST. LOUIS — Alderman Laura Keys says her opponent in the new 11th Ward is ineligible for office, and is asking a judge to kick her off the ballot.
In a lawsuit filed late Thursday, Keys accuses community organizer Carla “Coffee” Wright of falling short of a city charter requirement that candidates live in their wards for a year before an election.
Wright filed to run in the ward, which runs from Midtown to O’Fallon Park on the North Side, claiming an address in the 4500 block of Holly Avenue. City tax records list her as a co-owner of the property in each of the last three years.
But Keys says records indicating, among other things, that there is no city water service at the house, cast doubt on Wright’s residency. She also points out Wright was registered to vote at a home in Vandeventer neighborhood, in the new 12th Ward, until late December.
People are also reading…
The lawsuit goes on to say that Wright had outstanding water bills at the house in late January, despite requirements that candidates be current on such bills. And it accuses Wright of concealing from city officials her ownership of another house, on North Newstead Avenue, where property taxes have not been paid in years — which would have made her ineligible for office.
Wright denied the allegations in an interview Friday evening. “It’s a shame that she would put this stuff out there,” she said. “It’s horrible.”
On the residency question, Wright said she moved to her house on Holly Avenue in March 2022, when a lease expired at the home in the Vandeventer neighborhood. She conceded she doesn’t have water service on Holly Avenue, but said that was because she didn’t need it. “I have rainwater capture,” she said. “I’m natural.”
Given that, she said had no idea why there would any outstanding water bills. And she said she didn’t own the house on North Newstead, with the unpaid taxes, when she filed for office.
City land records indicate Wright signed paperwork giving up her claim to the house a week before she declared her candidacy.
Meet the people who represent Missouri in the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives.
Austin Huguelet
Austin Huguelet is the Post-Dispatch's City Hall reporter. He previously covered business for the Post-Dispatch and state politics for the Springfield News-Leader.
