Former EKY mayor faces same residency question he once used against challenger
A long-running political feud in Eastern Kentucky has returned to the courtroom, where the sitting mayor is seeking to remove his predecessor from the November ballot — the same tactic the former mayor used against him nearly four years ago.
Salyersville Mayor Stanley Howard filed a court petition this week claiming former Mayor James “Pete” Shepherd is not a resident of the city, and therefore does not meet the qualifications to run for office there. When he was mayor, Shepherd accused Howard of failing to meet residency requirements a day before they faced off in the 2022 general election, a race Shepherd lost by just 10 votes.
Howard was later seated by a Magoffin Circuit Court judge who determined he was qualified and duly elected based on property valuation maps and tax records. An appeals court later declined Shepherd’s appeal for a temporary order setting the lower court’s decision aside.
Shepherd told the Herald-Leader he feels confident that the courts will determine he’s a qualified Salyersville resident, too. He said he owns three properties in Magoffin County, but his full-time residence has been in the city at a West Maple Street home since 1981.
“I live right in the middle of Salyersville,” Shepherd said. “That’s my primary residence and what I’ve got listed at the courthouse.”
Howard didn’t immediately respond to a Herald-Leader request for comment Friday.
Questions over where candidates live are common legal disputes in Kentucky local elections, because state law is clear that candidates have to be residents of the cities they seek to lead. Former London Mayor Randall Weddle was removed from this year’s general election ballot last month after a court found he wasn’t actually living at the city address he listed in his filing paperwork.
The latest residency challenge filed by Salyerville’s mayor against his predecessor promises to reignite what has been a long-running tit-for-tat between the two men with high stakes for a city facing a crisis over its ailing sewage system.
Salyersville declared a state of emergency last year, months after a 14-inch sewer line collapsed, allowing raw sewage to rise to the surface. Nonfunctioning grinder pumps, sewage presses and damaged aeration equipment and lift stations have allowed raw sewage to back up into people’s homes, leading to widespread environmental and health concerns, the Salyersville Independent reported.
Former Magoffin County Judge-Executive Matt Wireman, who retired late last year but is still seeking reelection, floated the idea of dissolving the Salyersville water system and transferring operations to the county after state auditors chalked financial discrepancies at the small municipal system up to shoddy management.
The city’s water system was under extreme financial hardship in 2011 when Howard, who had been mayor of Salyersville since 1990, abruptly resigned. The city council later appointed Shepherd to replace Howard, and he served at the helm of the city for 11 years.
In his two-and-a-half terms in office, Shepherd said he did what he could to help clean up the city’s wastewater system but that aging infrastructure and financial constraints have been problems there for decades. Howard ran again in 2022 and narrowly won, despite Shepherd’s legal objections.
Magoffin Circuit Court Judge Kimberly Childers recused herself from the case Wednesday, citing “knowledge of any other circumstances in which impartiality might reasonably be questioned,” according to court records. Childers is the same judge who ruled in Howard’s favor when Shepherd challenged his qualifications for office in 2022.
