Monroe School Board's Stephanie Smith's Residency Questioned

The residence of an incumbent Monroe City School Board member is being questioned by her opponent. Verbon Muhammad claims Stephanie Smith may not even live in the district she's running for in Monroe. NBC 10 investigated the claim. According to Louisiana law every elected official must primarily reside in the district they represent. Verbon Muhammad says Stephanie Smith doesn't primarily live at her house in District 6. Both are running for the position on the Monroe School Board. Today, we hit the streets to try to get some answers. Stephanie Smith and Verbon Muhammad have both qualified to run for the same seat on the Monroe School Board. But Muhammad says smith may not actually live in the place she claims to represent and says he'll file a lawsuit to find out. "The citizens of District 6 want to know if there is any truth to it so she just simply needs to respond to it,” said Muhammad. According to the Ouachita Tax Assessors office Smith owns five houses in Monroe, including this one on South 6th that's actually in her district. At first we only found construction workers, then Smith showed up. "How you doing, I'm at home,” said Stephanie Smith. According to the tax assessors office this house on Cleo Road is registered to Stephanie Smith. When we asked neighbors, some said they didn't want to comment on their neighbor. One man told us Smith only rarely comes here on weekends and vacation. Cleo Road is not in District 6, it's located in the parish. Smith claims she lives on S. 6th. "I understand, if it’s not on the issues of the students and the kids I’m not even entertaining anything this is my home, that's the end of it,” said Smith. Smith’s next door neighbor on S. 6th agrees. "Do you see her every night? " asked reporter Nathan Ledford. “I see her every day ok, she lives there ok,” said S. 6th neighbor David Cyprus. The tax assessor's records show smith has had her homestead exemption on S. 6th since 2000 with a change to Cleo Rd in 2008, but was quickly changed back to S. 6th. Homestead exemption can only be claimed for one house that is your primary residence. "What about your other house?,” asked Ledford. “I have several houses yes,” said Smith. Muhammad says he's what the district needs. "Get our district back on the students need to get our test scores up,” said Muhamad. But Smith says Monroe’s district doesn't need anything new to continue academic excellence. Muhammad claims he'll file the lawsuit in court by Monday. He says that Smith will have seven days to prove she primarily lives at the house in District 6. If she can, Muhammad says he's ready for a clean race until voters cast their ballot for the Monroe School Board.