Suit Filed Over Candidate’s Residency

Where does Robert Miranda live?

Not in the 5th District of the Alhambra City and High School District, where he hopes to win election to the school board Nov. 3, according to a lawsuit filed Friday in Los Angeles Superior Court.

If the allegation is correct, then Miranda also does not live in the Garvey School District, where he serves on the school board.

The lawsuit seeks a court order declaring Miranda ineligible for the Alhambra race where he faces candidate Jimmy M. Gin.

Under Alhambra school district election laws, Miranda must reside in the 5th District--which covers a portion of South San Gabriel and Rosemead. Apparently, however, it is permissible for Miranda to live outside the Garvey district while serving on the board, officials said.

The lawsuit contends he lives with his wife in an Alhambra ranch home on Orange Grove Avenue. That house is a few miles from the abode on South San Gabriel’s North Cathryn Drive, which he registered as his residence in nomination papers for the Alhambra school board.

Miranda said he lives both places, paying $65 a month in rent plus telephone charges for the South San Gabriel property. “I live there part-time,” he said. “I go over there when I go over there. I never said I didn’t have two homes.”

His wife, Gloria, interviewed Friday on the lawn of the Alhambra home, said they live at both places but their pets live only in Alhambra.

At the South San Gabriel house, a woman who answered the door said the Mirandas live there.

Attorneys for the local teachers union filed the suit on behalf of John Nunez, Garvey School Board president and a voter in Alhambra’s 5th district.

“We have to play by the rules,” Nunez said. “We don’t need people to come into community and say, ‘I will rule for you.’ ”

The motive for the suit, Miranda said, is political.

Glenn Rothner, an attorney for Nunez, said the issue is which house is Miranda’s true domicile. In 1996, voters in the Alhambra school district approved a requirement that candidates live in the district.

The Garvey district serves elementary and middle school students in South San Gabriel, Rosemead and Monterey Park. Graduating students transfer to the Alhambra district for high school.