City Clerk Lists Pal’s Address as His Home : Hawthorne: Patrick E. Keller, who has been living in Hawaii, gives the residence of a friend on his voter registration.

Hawthorne City Clerk Patrick E. Keller, who has been living in Hawaii while collecting his $600-a-month city paycheck, uses a friend’s house as his local address although the friend said Keller stays there only during infrequent trips to the mainland.

Longtime friend Wes Bush, executive director of the Hermosa Beach Chamber of Commerce, said that since the summer of 1990, Keller has stayed with Bush and his wife whenever he has been in town. But Keller does not rent a room there.

Keller lists Bush’s address on his voter registration, although Bush said he has not seen or spoken to Keller since around Thanksgiving.

“Whenever he’s in town, he usually comes and stays with us. And when we used to go to Hawaii, we would stay with him,” Bush said.

Attempts to reach Keller in Hawaii for comment were unsuccessful.

City officials pledged to investigate whether Keller is in compliance with a city law that requires elected officials to be legal residents of Hawthorne. However, Keller, 45, can only be removed from office through a recall or by the state attorney general.

“If he doesn’t have a residence here, we will have to talk right away to the city attorney and see what our next step should be,” Hawthorne Mayor Steve Andersen said Thursday. “(We have) to check with the city attorney and see what’s appropriate for us, as the City Council, to do.”

City Atty. Michael Adamson was at a conference Thursday and could not be reached for comment.

But Hawthorne Councilman Charles Bookhammer said that even if Keller’s official residence turns out to be invalid, the council does not have jurisdiction over the matter.

“It’s not something we can do anything about,” Bookhammer said. “The law says (the attorney general) is the only one who can remove him from office if he’s not complying with the requirements.”

Keller’s residency was questioned publicly at this week’s City Council meeting, where a speaker complained that Keller had made collect calls to the city from Kona, Hawaii.

The city clerk position, a part-time office, is responsible for maintaining city resolutions and ordinances, keeping the minutes of council meetings, and administering municipal elections. Keller was first elected to the four-year position in 1981 and was reelected in 1985 and 1989.

The day-to-day operations of the city clerk’s office are handled by the chief deputy city clerk, Robin Parker. She said she has seen Keller only about 10 times since 1989, although he checks in by telephone once a week.

City officials say Keller has been rarely around City Hall since 1989, about the time he purchased a home in Hawaii, his ex-wife said. City officials for months have been privately urging Keller to either resign or move back to Hawthorne.

Bookhammer said that when he last spoke with Keller in September, the clerk promised to return to Hawthorne and begin attending council meetings on a regular basis. However, Keller has only attended one council meeting since last summer, Bookhammer said.