The owner of an Aberdeen pharmacy is fighting to join a crowded field of candidates for City Council, amid challenges that he is not actually a city resident.

Steven Johnson, owner of Johnson Family Pharmacy on West Bel Air Avenue, was disqualified from running last week because of claims that he does not actually live at the Aberdeen address listed on his voter registration. He declared his intention last month to run for City Council, which already has attracted 10 candidates for four seats.

“I want to do everything within the law. I don’t want to pull the wool over the eyes of Aberdeen’s voters,” Johnson said. “I do know where I live, though.”

“I’d rather not discuss this, since I have no idea where this is going. ... I can say he was disqualified because of residency issues,” said Gina Bantum, a former city councilwoman running the Nov. 7 municipal elections.

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When filing for election, Johnson used an address on the 100 block of Post Road, which state property records show he owns but does not list as his primary residence. Johnson’s mailing address on the property records is outside the city on the 300 block of Fords Lane, as is the address listed with his phone number. City Manager Doug Miller said a check for the filing fee had the Fords Lane address on it.

Johnson said his personal bank accounts and mail go to the Post Road address and insists that is his primary residence. He has an office at the Fords Lane address, he said, which is why some of his bank accounts are registered there. Johnson said he was unaware of the property records for the Post Road address.

He referred questions about how long he has lived at each address to his attorney.

Johnson blamed the challenge to his candidacy on people who didn’t like his “difference of opinion” with the current administration over the city’s growth. Bantum received two identical complaints about Johnson’s qualifications, one signed by Stephen Wright, Mayor S. Fred Simmons’ business partner, and the other signed by John Frank Jr., a resident from outside the city who supported the failed attempt to annex the Wetlands Golf Course, which Johnson opposed.

Johnson’s attorney, Joe Creed of the Greenbelt firm Joseph, Greenwald and Laake, intended to file an injunction to put Johnson on the ballot.

msantoni@baltimoreexaminer.com