LANSING — A candidate elected to two offices in the Nov. 5 election should now be disqualified from both positions, an attorney told the Michigan Court of Appeals in a new filing.
In northern Michigan, Linsey Rogers was elected treasurer of Montmorency County and a member of the school board in Atlanta, the county seat.
An attorney for the current treasurer, Cheri Eggett, says in court filings that the two offices are incompatible because the treasurer collects tax revenues controlled by the school board, creating a conflict of interest under state law.
Rogers, who is not a party to the lawsuit, defeated Eggett in the Republican primary in August. Eggett then ran for office in the general election and lost again to Rogers.
Eggett sued County Clerk Cheryl Neilsen before the election, saying Rogers should never have run for either office. A Montmorency Circuit judge ruled against Eggett on October 29, noting that the ballots had already been printed and voting was underway, and that Eggett had waited too long to file her lawsuit.
In Wednesday’s court filings, Eggett attorney David Delaney of Gaylord asked the Michigan Court of Appeals to rule that Rogers should be disqualified from both offices. Delaney asked for “immediate consideration” and a ruling by Jan. 1, when Rogers will take her new positions.
Neilsen took the position that it is not up to the county clerk to decide whether the two offices were incompatible and advised Rogers to seek her own legal advice, according to the lawsuits.
“The clerk cannot sit on the sidelines and claim it is ‘too late’ before and after the election,” Delaney told the Court of Appeal. “The clerk is the chief election official. She has to take a position.’
An attorney for Nielsen had not yet filed a response with the Court of Appeals as of Friday morning. But in an earlier filing in Montmorency County Circuit Court, Neilsen attorney Timothy Perrone of Lansing said it is not clear that the two offices are incompatible and that Neilsen “had no clear legal duty to disqualify Rogers from running for the two positions .
Delaney points to two positions taken by Michigan attorneys general that are not binding in state courts but are considered persuasive.
In 1990, then-Attorney General Frank Kelley issued an opinion that it was legally incompatible for anyone to serve as both the city treasurer and a trustee of the city school board.
“The nature of the duty a city treasurer owes a school board in collecting school taxes is likened to that of a fiduciary,” Kelley wrote.
In 2002, then-Attorney General Jennifer Granholm issued an opinion that it was incompatible to serve as both township treasurer and school board member if the township is within the school district.
Rogers said in an Oct. 3 post on her Facebook page that if the two positions are determined to be incompatible, she will serve as treasurer and relinquish the position on the Atlanta school board.
But Delaney argues that since Rogers should not have run for either position, any votes she received for both positions should be considered null and void.
Contact Paul Egan: 517-372-8660 or pegan@freepress.com.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan candidate who won two offices could be disqualified from both
