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| Posted Saturday, March 10, 2007 |
| Sorry, No N.Y. City Council Employment Opportunity for Haitian-American Dr. Eugene; New Election Is Set for April 24 |
| By JONATHAN P. HICKS |
A second special election for a City Council seat representing central Brooklyn will be held on April 24, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg said yesterday.
The first election was held on Feb. 20, but the winner, Mathieu Eugene, declined to take the seat after the Council asked for information verifying that he lived within the 40th Council District, which includes Crown Heights and Flatbush, on the day of the election.
Valerie Vasquez-Rivera, a spokeswoman for the New York City Board of Elections, said that another special election would cost about $380,000. That includes payments for poll workers, advertisements in media outlets as required by law, and the transporting of voting machines.
In the election on Feb. 20, Dr. Eugene became the first Haitian-born New Yorker elected to the Council. But he lived outside the district, and questions arose over whether he could verify that he had moved into the district before the election.
He maintained that he had signed a lease and moved from his home in Canarsie into an apartment in the district soon after Feb. 1. But he refused to sign an affidavit saying he met residency requirements and to provide a copy of the lease and other information to the Council.
He has said that he will be a candidate for the seat in the coming election.
There will be two other special elections before the voters go to the polls in Brooklyn. On March 27, voters on Staten Island will select two State Assembly members.
One race, on the island’s North Shore, will select the successor to Assemblyman John W. Lavelle, who was the chairman of the borough’s Democratic organization. Mr. Lavelle died of a stroke in January.
The second is to determine the successor to former Assemblyman Vincent M. Ignizio, who was elected to the City Council in a special election on the same day as Dr. Eugene.
Like Dr. Eugene, Mr. Ignizio was asked to sign an affidavit of eligibility and to provide other records to help determine residency. Mr. Ignizio signed the affidavit, supplied mortgage documents and utility bills, and was sworn in on Thursday.
Copyright 2007 The New York Times Company. Reprinted from The New York Times of Saturday, March 10, 2007
RELATED TEXT:.More on Dr. Eugene
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