COUNTRY CLUB HILLS • The mayor here is trying to stop a business owner from opening a laundromat because of his religion, a lawsuit filed Tuesday alleges.

Mohammed Almuttan says Bender McKinney, the mayor of Country Club Hills, has repeatedly denied him a license because his family is from Palestine and are practicing Muslims, the lawsuit claims. The suit also names three members of the Board of Aldermen.

City officials “have engaged in an ongoing pattern and practice of discrimination based upon the nationality and religion of the Mutan Family in violation of the Missouri and United States Constitutions,” the lawsuit says.

The mayor couldn’t be reached for a response. The suit was filed in St. Louis County Circuit Court.

Mutan is a shortened version of Almuttan used by some members of the extended family. The family has owned and operated Mally’s Supermarket in the city for more than five years.

Almuttan is building a gas station and convenience store and has been ready to open a 24-hour laundromat since November, when the building was approved by St. Louis County inspectors, the lawsuit says. City ordinances allegedly list only two requirements for a business license: paying a license fee and paying the deposit of a bond to cover potential inventory and sales taxes.

McKinney refuses to give Almuttan the license until he agrees to restrict the business’ hours to 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. and promises to sell additional goods and services, the lawsuit says. McKinney complained that the laundromat wouldn’t generate enough tax revenue for the city because sales tax isn’t charged on revenue from washing machines and dryers.

The mayor previously required that he inspect the laundromat building even after St. Louis County inspectors approved it, the suit says. Afterward he gave Almuttan several demands, including requiring that the laundromat offer WiFi internet service and drop-off and pick-up services and that the exterior of the building be a specific color.

McKinney also tried to pressure a property owner on West Florissant Avenue into backing out of a deal to sell his property to Almuttan, saying the family already owned too much property in the city, the suit says.

Almuttan has been paying rent on the laundromat building for more than a year, and he has spent more than $400,000 to open the business, the suit says. The gas station he is building is on a lot he bought from the city two years ago for about $125,000.

“The family has invested nearly $2 million into their businesses at a time when no one else wanted to be in the city of Country Club Hills,” the suit says.

When a reporter attempted to reach the mayor for comment Tuesday night, his wife, Deborah McKinney, said to “come to city hall” for a response.

Almuttan said he has completed nearly all of McKinney’s requirements in good faith even though he’s not legally required to.

“The mayor and his board members, they’ve been dragging me for almost a year,” he said. “I tried to talk to him several times – it’s like talking to a stone wall.”

Almuttan said McKinney would come by his properties and tell people “I don’t like those foreigners.”

Jay Kanzler, Almuttan’s lawyer, said the city previously tried to deny Almuttan a liquor license for his gas station after he had already bought the building.

“This isn’t the first dispute with the mayor and alderman,” he said. “It’s just more of what they’ve done to this family for more than two years.”

Other business in the city of about 1,280 people are closing, and the city has little options for revenue other than issuing fines for traffic violations, Kanzler said.

“These folks have done nothing but spend money and try to build up that community when nobody else wants to,” he said. “One can take the jump that no one else in that community gets treated the way a family of Palestinian Muslims does. Otherwise, why would you run out one of your only sources of revenue?”

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