Absent Official Uses Address of Friend’s Home : Government: But Hawthorne city clerk, who lives in Hawaii, does not pay rent at local house, the owner says.

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 though he stays there only during infrequent trips to the mainland, according to the home’s owner.

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

Keller lists Bush’s address on his voter registration, though Bush said he has not seen or spoken to Keller since about 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,” said Bush.

Attempts to reach Keller in Hawaii 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, because Keller, 45, is an elected official, he can only be removed 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, “It’s not something we can do anything about.”

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

Keller’s residency was questioned publicly at this week’s City Council meeting, where a resident complained that Keller had made $30 in collect calls to the city from Kona, Hawaii.

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

The day-to-day operations of the clerk’s office are handled by Chief Deputy City Clerk Robin Parker, who said she has seen Keller only 10 times since 1989, though he checks in by telephone once a week.

City officials say Keller has been rarely seen 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 resign or move back to Hawthorne.

Bookhammer said 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.