DETROIT (WXYZ) — Detroit City Councilwoman Gabriela Santiago-Romero is seeking reelection, but Detroit's city clerk says she's disqualified.
So, Santiago-Romero is suing.
Friday afternoon, she addressed a crowd of supporters at Clark Park in southwest Detroit. She and her adviser Charlie Widmaier explained a campaign filing discrepancy with the Wayne County Clerk’s Office. That discrepancy caused Detroit’s city clerk to disqualify Santiago-Romero from the primary.
“The reason being a fee that was owed stemming back to last October. We’re contending the fee should have never been owed," Widmaier told 7 News Detroit.
He said it involves a supposed late fee for a report due in late October.
“We submitted a report on October 25th. We have confirmation right here if anyone would like to see it. This is from Wayne County confirming they got the report. They’re now contending the first time we filed the report was on November 8th, which is incorrect," he explained.
Widmaier said Santiago-Romero called, emailed and went to the county clerk’s office with no resolve. So, her team has filed a lawsuit against the city clerk to get back on the ballot.
“We have our receipts. We have documentation thankfully, but that’s what happened. There’s missing information from the county side, and we’re just hoping that they except our receipts,” Santiago-Romero told 7 News Detroit.
If she loses the lawsuit, she'll have to run as a write-in candidate. She said she's prepared to do that.
“I’m hoping that they’re going to see that the evidence shows what happened and that they’re going to say that she is qualified and get her back in the race,” supporter Julie Lindsey said.
Joel Reyes-Klann, a plaintiff on the filing and supporter of Santiago-Romero, said “I really would like to see councilmember get back on the ballot, so she can focus on getting the campaign started and not have to do a write-in campaign.”
7 News Detroit reached out to the city clerk's office. As of news time, we have not heard back.
Wayne County Clerk's Office spokesman Dorian Tyus told 7 News Detroit: “Our office does not have a statement at this time due to pending litigation."
Late Friday afternoon, Widmaier said he did receive a fee waiver from the county clerk’s office. However, he said it doesn’t necessarily resolve the issue.
