'I intend to remain' a city resident, mayor says at meeting

LACONIA — Mayor Andrew Hosmer repeated on Monday his intention to remain a Laconia resident.

Hosmer described his living situation as he delivered his Mayor’s Report during the City Council meeting.

The mayor’s residency became an issue last week when some people, notably Dawn Johnson, a Laconia School Board member Dawn Johnson who was also just elected to the state House of Representatives, said Hosmer should resign because the mayor had recently begun spending his nights in Gilford.

Hosmer said last week he is selling one home in Laconia and preparing to move into another residence in the city. In the meantime, he has been living on Governors Island, just over the city line.

Johnson, who last week said she was “calling him out” over the residency matter, called in during the public comment portion of Monday’s Zoom council meeting. She did not repeat her call for Hosmer to resign, but instead said she wanted the mayor to spell out his residency.

“I’m looking for clarification,” she said, adding that her questions were not motivated by partisan politics.

Hosmer said that when his house on Summit Avenue sells, “I intend to move what remains in that house to Parker Street, and Parker Street will remain my domicile and residence. Laconia remains my residence,” he continued, “and has never changed during this period of buying and selling property and moving things among houses.”

“My domicile is not forfeited because of a temporary absence if one intends to return,” he said citing a state statute. “Though I may have spent at various times in Gilford at the newer house it has never been my intention to change my residence … or domicile. … As long as I have the privilege of being mayor I will remain a resident of this city.”