PORT ALLEN — Port Allen City Administrator Lance Joseph has filed papers to run for mayor,  but Iberville Parish tax documents show that he enjoys a tax break on property he owns in Plaquemine, 14 miles away. Residency there would make him ineligible to seek the mayor's post.

State law requires mayors to have established residency in the cities they want to lead. Joseph's Iberville Parish tax record shows him with a homestead exemption from property taxes there, and election guidelines say homestead exemptions are presumed to be for residences. The only exemptions are for those living in nursing homes or military veterans' homes.

Joseph said Tuesday that he lives with his father in Port Allen and that the Plaquemine home he built with his wife in 2006 is her domicile, not his. The two are not estranged, he said. 

"I meet the qualifications," he said in an interview. "I'm prepared to defend my notice of candidacy."

Louisiana election law requires that candidacies be challenged within seven days — a period that expires at 4:30 p.m. this Friday.

State law says candidates must have lived in a city for a year before being elected mayor. Joseph said that while property records show a homestead exemption in his name in Plaquemine, he has not applied for any homestead exemption anywhere. 

"I don't know how I got it — and the taxes on that property are escrowed. I never see it," he said. "I never asked for it because I never lived there."

Iberville Parish officials said Tuesday that Joseph was notified when the home was built that a homestead exemption was being applied to the property and that if Joseph didn't want it, he had to notify the assessor's office, which wasn't done.

Joesph used a post office box on his qualifying papers and says his permanent address is at his father's home on North 13th Street in Port Allen, which is in West Baton Rouge Parish. The homestead exemption on that property is in his father's name. Joseph said he and a brother obtained an interest in the property when their mother died. 

Joseph is running as a Democrat. 

Terecita Pattan, the city's human resources officer who is seeking the mayor's post as an independent, said she was aware of Joseph's homestead exemption from Iberville Parish but said "I'm not sure where we will go" with that information. Democrat Clyde Robertson Sr., another candidate, did not return a call for comment.

Complaints about Joseph's candidacy would go through the West Baton Rouge Parish clerk of court's office. No complaints had been filed through mid-afternoon Tuesday, the office said.