Binding a Kendo ComboBox to two model properties (one when an existing item is selected, one when a value is typed in)

Question

I don't know if this is something that is possible or not, but I'm having trouble finding the correct words to search for answers.

Let's say I have a "Location" model with these two properties. City corresponds to a column in the table with a foreign key to a lookup table of all cities in the local area. CityOther is a free-text field that allows users to enter any city name they want.

public int?   City      { get; set; }
public string CityOther { get; set; }

I have a Kendo ComboBox that's configured something like this:

@(Html.Kendo().ComboBoxFor(m => m.CityOther)
    .DataTextField("Text")
    .DataValueField("Value")
    .Placeholder("Select City")
    .Filter(FilterType.Contains)
    //.DataSource(d => ...)
)

When I serialize the form, I see two inputs with the names CityOther and CityOther_input.

When an existing city from the picklist is chosen, the values look like this:

{ name: 'CityOther'      , value: '3' }
{ name: 'CityOther_input', value: 'Springfield' }

When a free-text city (one not from the list) is entered, the values then look like this:

{ name: 'CityOther'      , value: 'Orlando' }
{ name: 'CityOther_input', value: 'Orlando' }

I would like to configure it so that:

1. a value selected from the existing list would end up in the City field (which means I would change it to .ComboBoxFor(m => m.City)).
2. a free-text value entered would end up in the CityOther field, rather than XYZ_input.

Is this possible?

Would model binding fail if the value in City (a nullable int property) was a string value?