Gary Masino is running for Philly City Council. But he recently held a Convention Center board seat for Bucks County residents.

By all accounts, City Council candidate Gary Masino has lived in Northeast Philadelphia for more than a decade.

But from 2020 until late last year, Masino held a seat on the Pennsylvania Convention Center board that is reserved for residents of Bucks County, an apparent violation of the state law that governs the center.

Masino testified in court earlier this year that he used his mother-in-law’s Bucks County address while serving on the board even though he has never lived there. He said this past week that he was unaware that he had to live in the county to represent it on the board, but he did not explain why he gave an incorrect address.

A Democrat who heads the sheet metal workers union, Masino is running against Republican Councilmember Brian O’Neill, who has represented the Far Northeast Philadelphia-based 10th District for 44 years. It’s one of the few competitive races on the ballot for the Nov. 7 general election, and both campaigns are spending hundreds of thousands of dollars.

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Questions about Masino’s role on the board first surfaced in a March court case in which O’Neill supporters unsuccessfully challenged Masino’s eligibility to run for Council.

Candidates must live in the district they are seeking to represent for at least one year before the election, meaning Masino was required to have lived in Philadelphia’s 10th District since at least November 2022. A lawyer representing the O’Neill backers argued, in part, that Masino appeared to be ineligible because he was Bucks County’s representative on the Convention Center board until December 2022.

Masino presented evidence that he has lived in Northeast Philadelphia since 2012 and testified that he gave the Convention Center the address of his mother-in-law’s house in Langhorne. That was the address listed for Masino in the center’s directory as recently as December 2022.

He also said he verbally resigned from the board in October 2022, although his departure was not recorded until the board’s December meeting.

Common Pleas Court Judge Joshua Roberts ruled that he was eligible to run for Council, but did not weigh in on whether it was appropriate for him to hold the board seat. The state law on the Convention Center says that counties in the Philadelphia area “shall appoint a resident of its county as a member of the board.”

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Masino spokesperson Jhonas Dunakin said Masino was unaware of the residency requirement for serving on the board, but did not explain why Masino provided his mother-in-law’s address to the Convention Center.

“Gary was never informed about a residency requirement and it was no secret that he resided in Philadelphia,” Dunakin said. “He resigned from the board after he was informed of the residency requirement.”

He emphasized that Masino is eligible to run for Council.

“This was settled in court in the primary,” Dunakin said. “Gary is a Northeast resident who is sick of our councilman not doing the work to help our neighbors.”

The Convention Center’s influential and highly politicized board oversees management of the sprawling Center City facility, which is a key part of the city’s tourism and hospitality efforts. It has been at the center of major disputes among construction trades unions such as Masino’s. The board includes appointees from the state, city, and surrounding counties who are paid a stipend of $125 for each meeting they attend.

Bucks County spokesperson James T. O’Malley said the county was under the impression that Masino met the residency requirement when he was appointed by the commissioners in 2020.

“The county administration believed Mr. Masino was a Bucks County resident at the time of his appointment,” O’Malley said in a statement. “When he announced his candidacy for Philadelphia City Council, it became apparent that was not the case. He then resigned from the Convention Center board as Bucks County’s representative.”

Convention Center spokesperson Pete Peterson said it is the appointing authorities’ responsibility to ensure the representatives meet the eligibility requirements, such as the residency rule for the collar counties’ seats.

But in testimony for the court case on his eligibility, Masino was said he was encouraged by the Convention Center to provide an address that was not his own.

“Do you have any idea how the Pennsylvania Convention Center would have gotten that address?” Roberts asked Masino in court.

“I have a general idea,” Masino responded.

“What is it?” Roberts said.

“They wanted — they asked me for a family member that lived in Bucks County. I gave them that address,” Masino said.

He added: “They said they needed it to use because I was on a Bucks County board for the Convention Center.”

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Masino also said in court that he resigned at the request of Bucks County Commissioner Bob Harvie, who had heard about Masino running for office in Philadelphia.

“The commissioners in Bucks County found — heard I was running for City Council and called me up and realized I didn’t live in Bucks County,” Masino said.

Harvie now holds the Convention Center seat that was vacated by Masino. He did not respond to requests for comment aside from the statement sent by O’Malley, the county spokesperson.

A Democrat who chairs the commissioners, Harvie is currently in his own tense reelection campaign as his party seeks to retain control of the county after winning it in 2019.

Although Masino does not live in Bucks County, he has political ties there. The Sheet Metal Workers Union Local 19, which he leads, has given money to the Bucks County Democratic Party, including a $5,000 donation this year, and his son, Gary Masino Jr., has worked as a political consultant for the party.

Vito Canuso, the lawyer who challenged Masino’s eligibility to run for Council, said Masino’s time on the Convention Center board smacks of corruption.

“There’s a substantial amount of contributions from the union to the political party up in Bucks County,” said Canuso, a Republican who represented O’Neill supporters in the case. “Talk about a quid pro quo.”

Masino’s answers in court, he said, raised serious questions.

“Why do you put an address down that’s not yours? You don’t reside there,” Canuso said. “Here’s an individual that wants to consider and propose and vote on ordinances and will ask people to comply with them, and he doesn’t comply with that state law that provides for representation on the convention board.”

Dunakin said the Convention Center issue was “an embarrassing attempt by Brian O’Neill and his supporters to make this election about anything but the issues that are affecting residents of the Northeast.”

Staff writers Jesse Bunch and Andrew Seidman contributed to this article.