A city resident filed a complaint with the Boston Election Department, challenging the residency of District 6 Councilor Kendra Lara.
The complaint, filed Thursday evening and obtained by the Herald, states that the resident is “formally challenging the residency of the district of Kendra Lara, also known as Kendra Hicks, for District 6 of the Boston City Council.”
The challenge could trigger a review from the Boston Election Commission. Lara is seeking a second term and faces two challengers in the Sept. 12 preliminary election.
Lara denied the allegation, telling the Herald that she lives in the district she represents, at the address listed on her campaign filing with the Boston Election Department and voter registration form: 46 Saint Rose St., a multi-family home in Jamaica Plain.
“That is my house,” Lara said. “I moved into this apartment in February.”
Prior to that, Lara said she lived at 161 South Huntington Ave. in Jamaica Plain for six years. That complex, Bell Olmsted Park, is income-restricted housing through the Boston Planning & Development Agency.
Lara addressed rumors that she was staying with a friend outside of Boston, stating that she was at her listed address in Jamaica Plain while speaking with the Herald on Thursday evening.
“I’m literally in my house with my kid,” Lara said. “Why would I be spending time in Somerville?”
Lara declined to comment, however, on statements made by a city spokesperson, confirming that the District 6 councilor was seen on security footage “regularly” driving into a City Hall garage with a revoked license.
“I have put out a statement and I will refer you back to the statement that my office put out,” Lara said. “If we have any other comment to make then we will reach out and let you know. But the reality is that this is a case that’s being heard in court and I’m not going to make any comment about an open case.”
Lara, 33, is due to appear in the West Roxbury Division of Boston Municipal Court on July 19 for a clerk magistrate’s hearing, in connection with a June 30 crash where the councilor is alleged to have driven an unregistered and uninsured car into a Centre Street home in Jamaica Plain.
She is also facing charges for driving with a revoked driver’s license, which according to police documents shared with the Herald, had first been suspended in 2013. Her license was revoked by Massachusetts after she was cited in Connecticut in March 2015, which had resulted in her license being suspended in that state.
Amid questions that Lara was also driving to City Hall and parking at a garage with a revoked license, City Council President Ed Flynn requested a review of employee parking procedures through the Boston Property Management Division.
Specifically, Flynn was seeking a review of whether city councilors, staffers, and any City of Boston employee parking at the executive garage or at the Donnelly Garage was “required to provide verification of a valid driver’s license, copy of a vehicle registration, and insurance.”
In response to a public records request from the Boston Globe, seeking camera footage of the executive garage, “city officials reviewed the footage and confirmed that Councilor Lara drove a dark gray Honda Civic into and out of the garage regularly,” a city spokesperson told the Herald on Thursday.
“We are not releasing footage at this time while the city reviews the records request for potential security exemptions,” the city spokesperson said.
The car’s description matches the one described in a police report for the June 30 crash that was previously provided to the Herald.
The footage reviewed by city officials only goes back 30 days, the spokesperson said.
A City Hall employee told the Herald, however, that Lara is a “full-time driver” who “parks in a garage as much as any other.” City councilors are able to swipe the pass card they use to get into their offices to get into the executive garage, and have assigned spots, the employee said.
Lara was clocked at going twice the speed limit before crashing into the Jamaica Plain home last month, according to police documents.
Her 7-year-old son, Zaire, was not in a car seat as required for children under 8 and below 57 inches in height, which prompted authorities to file a 51A child abuse or neglect form with the Department of Children and Families. The boy was injured in the crash and was treated at Children’s Hospital in Boston, police wrote.
Lara issued an apology for the crash in a statement last Saturday.
“We are all accountable for our actions, and I am no different, which is why I offer my sincerest apologies to everyone, especially the residents of District 6,” she said. “As an elected official, I’ve worked hard to center the dignity and humanity of my constituents. Today, I ask you to see mine as I correct my mistake.”