On Tuesday a lawsuit was filed challenging Pastor Mark Hamilton’s candidacy for Spokane City Council.
Attorney Frank Malone is disputing Hamilton’s residency, claiming he has not lived inside the Spokane city limits long enough to run for office.
The Spokane City Charter states, “A person must be a qualified voter of the City of Spokane and have been a resident of the city, and of the appropriate council district, for the one year immediately preceding the time of filing as a candidate…”
The lawsuit claims Hamilton bought his house in District 1 last June but did not register to vote at his “new residence” until after the November election.
Additionally, the suite claims Hamilton still does not have the proper permits to occupy the qualifying residence. Last week a city building official declared that Hamilton is not allowed to live at the residence.
“The voters of the 1st Council District deserve to have a representative that actually represents them,” Malone said in a press release. “They do not deserve a representative who claims to live in the district but clearly does not. This is the most basic requirement to run for office and this violates the trust of the voters.”
Hamilton is pastor of 1 Body Ministries in Spokane and has worked in ministry for 28 years.
He refused to allow Spokane Faith & Values to interview him earlier this year when he was approached about a feature on 1 Body Ministries.
There is another whole story about this man. I am a Christian Pastor and I am more upset by his ethical and integrity issues that hurt the whole Body of Christ. Hamilton is a Pastor accountable to no one since he just creates his own churches without any link to a wider church body. There are professional standards for being a Pastor that he seems not to care about. I am accountable to the United Church of Christ (ucc.org) through the Pacific Northwest Conference UCC (pncucc.org). As a Pastor, I am held to strict standards for the use of the power of my office….to never do anything that would violate the Pastor-Congregant relationships and to always represent my local church in public with the best ethical standards. Hamilton not only doesn’t get it…he has no wider faith community or institution to hold him accountable. Just take the example of his church member George White who worked on this Spokane house thinking he was helping the church. Hamilton manages the disability payments for White which he should not do while also being his Pastor – this is a professional boundary violation. Then, he tells the media that you can’t trust the integrity of White, his Church member…what a violation. This man should not be running for office, nor should he be a Pastor. I am sure some good investigative journalism would dig up more.