HACKENSACK - If you want to serve on a town's governing body, it helps to live in town.

We're being a little flippant. Actually, you are required to live in town if you are seeking elected office there. If you allegedly do not, it's usually a court battle.

That is precisely what is happening in this Bergen County town with a municipal election on tap for next Tuesday. (A small number of cities in the state with non-partisan governing bodies have municipal elections in May).

Marlene Somerville is running for city council on a five-person ticket with Mayor John Labrosse.

However, a pending suit says she is not eligible to run because she does not live in Hackensack. It was filed by Kenneth Martin, who served previously with Somerville on the city's school board.

The suit alleges that Somerville signed more than one set of "mortgage documents" stating that she lives at an address in East Orange. The suit notes that state law requires a candidate to live in a town when seeking election for at least one year.

The suit says the mortgage documents Somerville signed indicated she would live in East Orange until at least January, 2025, meaning she would not meet the one-year residency requirement to run for office in Hackensack this May.

Giancarlo Ghione, the attorney for Martin, says a hearing on the suit was set for this week, but has now been postponed until later in the month, which would be after the election.

That seems a bit odd, but here is the apparent scenario.

If Somerville wins, the suit over her residency will proceed.

If she loses, the case is moot.

Besides Somerville, defendants in the suit include the Bergen County Clerk, the county Board of Elections and the Hackensack City Clerk.

As of Tuesday afternoon, Somerville had not answered the litigation in court filings.

However, an answer filed by the city clerk's office said it was not in a position to judge the residency question, but said that Somerville has been a registered voter in the city for many years.

Moreover, and perhaps more importantly, the clerk's answer said the suit should be dismissed. Here is a salient part of its argument:

"It  is fundamental to the efficient operation of this ongoing election that the courts and the City Clerk’s office not be misused for political or public relations purposes, such as to potentially tarnish a candidate in a premature manner without giving that candidate a full and fair opportunity to litigate the matter – put differently, to misuse the judicial system for purposes of promoting a purported 'October surprise,' only this time in April for a rapidly impending May election. It is also improper to disrupt the City Clerk’s administration of the election and her myriad other official duties during this exceptionally busy time with distractions that have no basis in the law."

It theorized that the suit may have been filed merely to "disrupt the election," noting that mail-in voting already is taking place.

Just for the record, Somerville is on a ticket with Mayor Labrosse, Deputy Mayor Kathy Canestrino, Lance Powell and Marco Manuel Howington.

Their opponents, running under the banner of Hackensack Unites, are Caseen Gaines, Agatha Toomey, Roberto Diaz, Philip Carroll and Sonya Clark-Collins.

In response, Nick Bond, a spokesman for the Labrosse Team campaign, said:

"Marlene Somerville is a lifelong Hackensack resident and has never been registered to vote anywhere else, so she is obviously eligible to run for City Council and it's absurd and insulting that the Zisa political machine is trying to disenfranchise her from seeking elected office. This is clearly a desperate attempt to divert attention away from the Zisa/Gaines team being exposed for taking over $50,000 from developers after spending this entire campaign lying to the people of our community about development. Marlene is a dedicated public servant who cares deeply about Hackensack, and she will make an excellent City Council member no matter what the corrupt Zisa machine has to say about it."