For a while now, some Rock Hall residents have insisted that Councilwoman Beth Andrews, elected in 2017, is no longer eligible to serve on the town council because she no longer lives in the town limits.
Andrews also serves as vice mayor.
In June of 2018, Andrews and her husband purchased a waterfront home beyond the town limits on Jamieson Road. Residents familiar with the couple’s in-town property on Hawthorne Road say they “rarely” or “never” see the couple there.
“It’s dark over there at night,” said a resident familiar with the property. “There’s never any lights on.”
“I own two homes…5923 Hawthorne Road is my legal residence,” Andrews said in a brief phone interview on Saturday.
When asked, Andrews did not deny that she returns to Jamieson Road every day but answered with a question, “how do you know I don’t go to the Hawthorne house first, or if I don’t make a stop there in the morning, you don’t know that.”
“If someone wants to make an issue they can take it up with the council,” she said. Andrews said the current council has yet to question her residency.
The Spy made several visits to the Hawthorne Road property during different times of the day. No lights were on during evening hours and no cars were observed in the driveway. The opposite was observed at Andrews’ Jamieson Road address.
Maryland tax records indicate that Andrews claims her Hawthorne Road property as her permanent legal residence, but the Maryland Court of Appeals has ruled that residency is not necessarily determined by a tax record but more importantly where a person domiciles.
According to the court, “One’s domicile, generally, is that place where he intends it to be. The determination of his intent, however, is not dependent upon what he says at a particular time, since his intent may be more satisfactorily shown by what is done than by what is said.”
The Court stated, “Domicile has been defined as the place with which an individual has a settled connection for legal purposes and the place where a person has his true, fixed, permanent home, habitation and principal establishment, without any present intention of removing therefrom, and to which place he has, whenever he is absent, the intention of returning. The controlling factor in determining a person’s domicile
is his intent.”
On Oct. 11 Andrews and her husband hosted a fundraiser gala at their Jamieson Road home. The invitation indicated the location was the “Home of Dave May and Beth Andrews.”
If You Can’t Vote, You Can’t Hold Office
Section 606 of the Rock Hall Town Charter requires that officeholders be eligible to vote in town elections.
“A voter must have resided continuously within the corporate limits of Rock Hall since the January 1st immediately preceding any town election held pursuant to Section 609 of the Charter of the Town of Rock Hall; and is registered in accordance with the provisions of this Charter shall be a qualified voter of the town”
“For special elections, the voter must have resided within the corporate limits of Rock Hall for the 90 days preceding the election.”
Rock Hall Mayor Dawn Jacobs did not respond to a request for comment by the time this story ran.
J.M. Kramer says
Beth is one of the more intelligent and thoughtful of our Town Council members. Leave her be, please.
Lynn Hilfiker says
There are lots of thoughtful, intelligent Rock Hall residents and business owners who live outside of corporate town limits. Maybe the Charter should be changed so that we can vote in town elections.
J.M. Kramer says
Hear, hear. I suppose annexing Skinners Neck would be the next step?
Lynn Hilfiker says
Sounds good, Michael; with only about 400 voters in the last election, couldn’t hurt
Gren Whitman says
Spy reporter Menefee could have spelled Councilwoman Andrews’ name correctly.
More to the point, her place of residence has been discussed in public ever since last spring. This Spy report is very old news.
To date, no one has complained to Mayor Jacobs and the Council about Ms. Andrews’ official residence. And if they do, I doubt any action will be taken.
Why? Because Vice Mayor Andrews is providing expert assistance to Mayor Jacobs and the other Council members as they work to rectify and repair the high-priority financial and infrastructure problems left behind by our ex-mayor and our ex-town manager.
Steve Meehan says
Dear Mr. Whitman. Thanks for your note. Mr. Menefee spelled Ms. Andrews’ name correctly initially, but there was a mistake in editing. Thanks for reading.
Gren Whitman says
If that’s the case, the Spy needs to correct all the erroneous spellings of Ms. Andrews’ name; there are two still uncorrected.
But as I have your attention, here’s another point: Regarding existing problems in Rock Hall (finances, water quality, wastewater treatment, substandard properties, municipal building deterioration, RHPD staffing, etc.) that Mr. Menefee elected not to report on, it’s reassuring to know that our new Mayor and our reconstituted Council, as well as the new Town Manager and new Zoning Administrator, are working to resolve them instead of (a) denying they exist; (b) trying to hide them; (c) ignoring them; (d) hoping they’ll disappear; and (e) hoping others don’t notice.
Perhaps the Spy will publish a report on a real problem in Rock Hall the next time.
Dale Genther says
Mr. Whitman, I’m willing to bet that if it had been the previous mayor whose residency status had been in question you would have been all over that. There’s nothing like a good double standard to make life interesting.
Gren Whitman says
Mr. Genther, speculating about something that did not happen does not a double-standard make.
Cindy Cook says
Trying to make yourself sound intelligent doesn’t ultimately make you an intelligent person either Mr. Whitman.
Steve Meehan says
I am never sure how to monitor such spirited commentary. I encourage the perfect not to bully the less perfect. It’s a national problem. Let’s break the cycle. You will know who you are. Thanks for reading and I remind you to subscribe to the Daily Intelligence Report if you don’t already.