PORT ALLEN — A judge has scheduled a hearing for Wednesday on whether Port Allen administrator Lance Joseph can run for mayor after a city resident claimed in a lawsuit that he really lives in Plaquemine and enjoys a property tax exemption there.

Under state law, mayors must have established residency in cities before attempting to lead them. Joseph says the Plaquemine home where he pays taxes and enjoys a homestead exemption is where his wife lives, but that he lives in Port Allen with his father.

Regina Rizzutto, a Port Allen resident, filed an election challenge last week claiming that Joseph is ineligible to run for mayor. Election guidelines presume that homestead exemptions are for primary residences.

During a discussion regarding a blighted property before the Port Allen Council four weeks ago, a resident challenged Joseph's contention that he lived with his father on North 13th Street in the city.

Joseph acknowledges his Plaquemine home has a homestead exemption, but said he didn't apply for it. The Iberville Parish assessor's office said last week that the property was extended one automatically after the home was built more than a decade ago.

Joseph never notified the assessor that the exemption was applied incorrectly and routinely receives notices about its existence, the assessor's office said.

If Ruzzutto can prove that Joseph lives in Plaquemine, he would be ineligible to run for mayor.

Joseph declined comment Monday, but said last week that the home he built in 2006 with his wife was her primary residence, not his. He said the couple are not estranged.

"I meet the qualifications," he said.

No one answered the door Monday when two WBRZ reporters showed up at the address she provided when filing her lawsuit.

Terecita Pattan and Clyde Robertson Sr. are also running for mayor. Neither could be reached for comment Monday.