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Calls grow for South Bend council president to step down over residency

Sharon McBride
Provided
Sharon McBride

Calls are growing for South Bend Common Council President Sharon McBride to step down because she no longer lives in the council district she’s elected to represent.

2024 was a rough year for McBride and it’s not getting any easier as the year winds down.

In March St. Joseph County commissioners fired her from her job as executive director of the DuComb Center, the county’s community corrections agency. They were unhappy that she had paid her mother large amounts of overtime pay to work at the center.

Now McBride faces questions about her residency status. She represents the council’s third district, on the city’s near southeast side, but independent local media site Redress South Bend has obtained her city utilities bills showing that no one has been living in her home of record.

Black Lives Matter South Bend issued a statement Friday calling on her to step down. At-large Council Member Oliver Davis also said McBride should resign if she’s not living in the district day-to-day.

WVPE asked McBride about the allegation Friday.

"If you do your research you'll see that I pay a mortgage and you'll also see that I also pay utilities," McBride said. "So if you're listening to that, then that's what you're listening to."

McBride declined further comment. McBride was elected to the seat in 2018 after Council Member Randy Kelly resigned because he moved out of the district.

Davis says the council must follow that precedent and Indiana code, which requires an elected official to live in the district they represent. He says it’s not enough to own property and pay utilities in the district, and it never has been.

"To me if somebody owns five houses and pays for water utilities and all of that, and they rent their house out or whatever in the area, but they're not residing there, they were not able to hold or represent that district," Davis said. "I'm no attorney but in my practice of being on the council and seeing how local government has been handled, that is what has been the experience here. If she is not living at her residence, she should not be in office."

Parrott, a longtime public radio fan, comes to WVPE with about 25 years of journalism experience at newspapers in Indiana and Michigan, including 13 years at The South Bend Tribune. He and Kristi have two children currently attending Indiana University in Bloomington. In his free time he enjoys fixing up their home, following his favorite college and professional sports teams, and watching TV (yes that's an acceptable hobby).