‘I want to be a resident of Lansing — this isn’t phony’
Posted
Andy Balaskovitz
Monday, Jan. 17 — Lansing Board of Education member Jack Davis is clear: He is a bona fide Lansing resident, despite what some people are saying online.
He is listed in the phone book at a Lansing address: 3010 Staten Ave., No. 6 in the Tammany Hills apartment complex on Forest Road between Interstate 496 and Aurelius Road.
A source told City Pulse he has been seeing chatter online about whether Davis’ claim of city residency is a just a ruse.
County records show his wife, Susan, as the owner of 4772 Arapaho Trail in Okemos. Davis is considered an “associated” person at the Okemos home, according to www.whitepages.com.
That has led some people to question whether he meets the Lansing School District’s residency requirement for board members. He says he not only has a city residence but that he uses it virtually every day.
He says that he lived in the city for two years before considering running for the school board in 1999. He is also an attorney at Lansing-based Loomis, Ewert, Parsley, Davis and Goting.
So why does Davis maintain a Lansing apartment at about $600 a month while his wife lives 4 1/2 miles away in an Okemos home? Just so he can maintain his position on the school board?
Well, not quite.
Davis will not publicly reveal why he has a separate apartment. But he has been doing it for 12 years, he said. No one has questioned him on it since he was elected to the school board in 1999, he said.
“Nobody can question that I haven’t established residency (in the city),” he said. Davis enjoys the Tammany Hills apartment because it’s close to the Forest Akers golf courses at Michigan State University and is an ideal area to ride his bicycle. Davis says he pays income taxes to the city and is a registered voter in the city. “I want to be a resident of Lansing — this isn’t phony,” he said.
He also said he is at the apartment virtually every day. “Much of my personal activities revolve around that location,” he said.
So why didn’t he and his wife buy a permanent home within the city? Davis let her make that call.
“I don’t want have her unhappy about where she’s living,” Davis said, adding that they looked at homes in the Moores River Drive area. “(The city) is a little too constricted for her. She likes the natural setting.”
“A lot of guys are probably wrapped up in the nature of their residence — I am not,” Davis added.
Davis’ school board term expires this year. The 72-year-old says he “doubts” he will run again.
“I will have been on 12 years. That’s a long time,” he said.
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