CITY CONSIDERS CANDIDATES' ELIGIBILITY

Cape Girardeau City Attorney Warren Wells said on Monday that one of four candidates for Ward 6 in the spring municipal election likely will be ineligible to run.

But another candidate who's eligibility also was questioned apparently will be allowed to run.

Jess Hopple of 2700 Bloomfield Road, who filed for the seat Friday, apparently has failed to meet the four-year residency requirement for city council.

Hopple also ran for city council in 1991, but was declared ineligible after he disclosed he had only lived in the city for about a year prior to filing for election.

Now, two years later, Hopple is still short of the four-year residency requirement set out in the city charter.

Hopple was out of town Tuesday and unavailable for comment. He said last week that he would challenge a decision that was unfavorable to his candidacy.

Wells said Hopple's election petition also didn't contain enough valid signatures.

The charter requires the petition to contain 50 signatures of registered voters in a candidate's ward. Although Hopple's contained more than 50, Wells said several signatures were declared invalid by County Clerk Rodney Miller.

"If the candidate desires to do so, a candidate can file additional signatures," he added. "But there's still the issue of the four-year residency requirement."

The city attorney brought the issue before the city council on Monday, but council members said Hopple's eligibility ought to be decided by the city administration.

Councilman Al Spradling III said it would appear Hopple's situation today is unchanged from 1991, when he was declared ineligible for the city council based on the residency requirement. He moved to Cape Girardeau in December 1990.

"He was declared ineligible two years ago, and he's still ineligible because four years have not yet passed," Spradling said.

Councilman David Limbaugh, who was allowed to run after his eligibility was questioned in 1986, said he didn't think the council ought to take a position on the matter -- particularly when council members might be running against the candidates in question.

Wells declined Monday to make a definite ruling on Hopple's eligibility.

"I'm going to confer with the rest of the staff," he said. "But based on the information he's provided publicly -- by his own version -- he has not met the four-year requirement."

The news was better Tuesday for Dennis Dobson of 157 Pebble Lane, also a Ward 6 council candidate.

Dobson, a resident of the recently annexed Twin Lakes subdivision, filed an election petition Nov. 30. Wells had said he was unsure how the residency requirement would apply to a resident of an area that's been annexed into the city.

But the city attorney said Monday that based on a Missouri attorney general's office opinion from 1965 and case law in two other states, Dobson meets the residency requirement by virtue of residing in Twin Lakes for at least four years.

"The attorney general ruled the candidate's residence in the area that was annexed made him a resident for council eligibility purposes," said Wells. "Although an attorney general's opinion isn't the same as a legal precedent, that opinion was based on a Kentucky case that had similar facts.

"Also, since then, there's been a similar case in California."

Dobson said Tuesday he was delighted to hear the news.

"I'm very happy that the decision was made that's favorable to my candidacy, and I feel fortunate to have the opportunity to run," Dobson said. "It would have been nice to allow (Hopple) to run also. The more the merrier, I think."

Dobson said he hopes there can be some type of candidates debate or forum prior to the February primary to enable the candidates to air their views.

Dobson said that had Wells found a precedent for declaring him ineligible, he would have withdrawn from the race.

"When a decision's made, you have to abide by it," he said. "I wouldn't have questioned it either way."