INSIDE INGLEWOOD - The Morningside Park Chronicle has obtained evidence that Inglewood mayor James T. Butts may not have been a resident of Inglewood when he was legally required to have been so at the time he filed his running papers for the special mayoral election primary race of 2010.
In 2010, the city of Inglewood required city council candidates, a classification which includes the mayor, to be a resident of Inglewood for no fewer than 30 days prior to filing one's running papers with the Inglewood city clerk. James T. Butts filed his mayoral running papers on March 10, 2010.
In property deeds filed with the LA County Recorded on February 23, 2009 and filed by "joint tenants James T. Butts and Judy L. Butts" for the Ladera Heights single-family residence at 5825 Shenandoah Avenue in Los Angeles, CA 90056, a number of statements therein may provide clarity into Butts' refusing to sign an affidavit confirming his residential validity to run during the special mayoral election primary that took place in 2010.
The Short Deed was filed with the County of LA on March 12, 2009 and was signed by the soon-to-be mayor and his third wife, Judy L. Butts, within a year of Mr. Butts' filing running papers with the City of Inglewood's city clerk, Yvonne Horton, to run for mayor of Inglewood in the election of 2010.
The discrepancy of two days in one way or another could lead to litigation by either Bank or America or the LA County DA.
The loan agreement between Butts and B of A requires that the resident of the property "shall occupy, establish, and use [5825 Shenandoah Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90056] as borrower's principal residence within 60 days after the execution of this Security Instrument and shall continue to occupy the Property as Borrower's principal residence for at least one year after the date of occupancy."
Closely following the aforementioned statement, B of A states that "Borrower shall be in default if, during the Loan application process, Borrower or any persons or entities acting at the direction of Borrower or with Borrower's knowledge or consent gave materially false, misleading, or inaccurate information or statements to Lender (or failed to provide Lender with material information) in connection with the Loan Material representations include, but are not limited to, representations concerning Borrower's occupancy of the Property as Borrower's principal residence."
The mayor's signed declaration on his 2010 running papers appear to conflict with the loan agreements filed with Bank of America and the LA County Recorder's Office.
There has been previous media scrutiny of the mayor's residence outside of Inglewood.
In an article published in The Sentinel and dated July 22, 2010, it was stated that "City Clerk Yvonne Horton and others spoke passionately on three separate occasions stating that if [James T.] Butts would sign an affidavit, under the penalty of perjury, that his residency requirements were filed on time, he would be allowed to continue his candidacy [for mayor of Inglewood]. [Butts] refused and said, 'Nothing good can come of my signing an affidavit, so I do not want to sign."
In a letter to the Inglewood City Council dated July 15, 2010 expressly addressing the June 8, 2010, Mayoral Special Election, Horton wrote, "I am obliged to conclude and to inform the City Council that Mr. Butts did not become a registered voter in the City of Inglewood until February 12, 2010 --less than 30 days (only 26 days, in fact) before he filed his nominating papers on March 10, 2010, and that Mr. Butts therefore is not eligible to be nominated for the office of Mayor." However, further investigation was not pursued for nothing more than what Horton described as an alleged "absence of any reliable evidence."
Nevertheless, Horton went on to state that "[b]ecause Mr. Butts was not a registered voter in the City of Inglewood for a period of not less than thirty days preceding the date on which he filed his nominating papers, he cannot lawfully be nominated for the office of Mayor."
At the core of the contention was a questionable, hand-written note that Butts alleged to have hand-delivered to the County Registrar-Recorder on February 6, 2010. The date, however, is a Saturday, a day when the County Clerk's office is closed. Moreover, the note did not have a County Seal stamped in purple, let alone a time or date of delivery—as all such documents properly filed with the LA County Registrar-Recorder bear.
In an Our Weekly (OW) article dated January 27, 2011, an OW staff writer wrote that "[d]uring August 2010 Butts claimed to live in the back house of his parents-in-law’s Inglewood home."
The Chronicle has learned that the house to which Butts was referring is the residence at 2512 W 102nd Street in Inglewood, CA 90303. That residence, for which a loan was obtained from Bank of America dated April, 2006, was filed at the LA County Recorder on December 8, 2009 at 14:26 hours—which in civilian vernacular is approximately 2:30 p.m.
The three-and-a-half year difference between the deed's date and County Registrar's filing date remain under review.
Records show that the residence on 2512 W. 102nd street is owned by the Cora and James Rawls Trust.
Butts is a former veteran Inglewood police officer and the former chief of police of Santa Monica. From 2006 until 2010, he was the Deputy Executive Director at LAX Security before stepping down to take a significantly lesser-paying position as the mayor of Inglewood at the time that the city that was facing possible insolvency.
At least one of Butts' former constabulary positions have allowed him to be granted a Top Secret security clearance with the FBI and other national security agencies.
The L.A. County District Attorney's office, which has been formally notified of the violations, has remarked that the matter is under review—a term which the D.A. has reiterated "does not mean the matter is under investigation."
Butts did not return calls or e-mails to the Chronicle staff.
(Randall Fleming is a veteran journalist and magazine publisher. He has worked at and for the New York Post, the Brooklyn Spectator and the Los Feliz Ledger. He is currently editor-in-chief at the Morningside Park Chronicle, a monthly newspaper based in Inglewood, CA and on-line at www.MorningsideParkChronicle.com)
-cw
CityWatch
Vol 11 Issue 22
Pub: Mar 15, 2013
