Complaint Seeks to Disqualify Dahms

City Council candidate Bob Dahms should not be allowed to run for office because he lied about his address when he registered to vote last year, a backer of another candidate charged Tuesday in a formal complaint to the city clerk.

Melody Peterson, a supporter of candidate Boyd Bredenkamp, said in her complaint that Dahms registered to vote at a house he never occupied and did not re-register at his current address until after he took out and filed nomination papers for the Sept. 18 election.

Dahms conceded that he never lived at his old voting address, but said he had intended to move there when he registered. When those plans fell through, he said, he filled out another voter registration card at a new address but it was never entered in county records.

Dahms said Peterson--who had been co-chairman of the committee that led the campaign to recall C. L. (Clay) Bryant from the council in June--filed the complaint as a “cheap political trick.”

“If this were for real,” Dahms said, “the registrar of voters would have kicked me out a long time ago.”

A spokeswoman for the county registrar of voters refused comment on the complaint, saying that the city of Pomona is administering its own election and is responsible for determining the eligibility of candidates.

City Atty. Arnold Glasman said the city has no authority to remove a candidate at this late date and the election will go forward. He said the city clerk fulfilled her responsibility by verifying that Dahms was on the voter registration rolls and is not required to determine whether Dahms registered properly.

Peterson insisted Dahms should be disqualified because state law says a person is ineligible for office unless he is a registered voter when nomination papers are issued. Peterson said that even though Dahms voted in the June primary election, he was not legally registered because he did not live at the address he claimed.

Dahms said he had planned to move last year to an address on Gibbs Street after Mayor Donna Smith questioned his right to live at his business on 2nd Street.

Deborah Palmer, who lives at the Gibbs address with her husband and 15-year-old son, said her landlord offered to cut her rent by $200 a month last year if she would allow Dahms to occupy a room, but she refused.

Dahms said he subsequently found an apartment on Center Street and moved there.

Records at the county registrar of voters show that Dahms was registered to vote on Gibbs Street from Aug. 15 of last year until he re-registered on Center Street on July 21 this year, nine days after he filed as a candidate. He said he has been living in a Center Street apartment since late last year.

Both the Center and Gibbs addresses are in the 3rd Council District, where candidates must reside in order to run in Tuesday’s special election.

Dahms said that whatever his voting address, he has lived in the district for many months and has been a registered voter in Pomona for at least 10 years.