McCandless officials agree to explore imposing term limits on council seats

McCandless officials are exploring the possibility of amending the town’s home rule charter to impose term limits on members of council.

The idea was floated at the Aug. 24 council meeting by Councilwoman Angela Woods, who represents Ward 5.

Woods said her interest in term limits for council was piqued by a webinar she attended featuring a former Irvine, Texas, mayor who discussed how her town created term limits for the mayor’s seat and council.

“It was an interesting idea to me,” Woods said. “I’m wondering if there might be any interest in it as an agenda item at a future meeting.”

Several members of council said they were open to the discussion, but first wanted more information about what such a change would require.

“It’s always worth discussing anything like that,” Councilman David Smith said. Councilwoman Carolyn Schweiger also said she is “on board” with bringing the issue to the table as was Councilwoman Shelly Spohnholz, though she has some reservations about the possible financial impact of amending the charter.

“I’m interested, it’s a very worthy discussion point, ” she said. But “my only cautionary comment is, because of financial concerns, I wouldn’t like to be in a position to throw a lot of legal fees at that discussion. But having more information about the implications of this would be a good thing.”

Manager Bob Grill said the process of amending the home rule charter “is a yearlong process at the minimum.”

To amend the charter, a commission will have to be formed to review proposed changes. The requested change must then be approved by voter referendum.

Grimm said the town can limit its action to change the charter to just the term-limit issue instead of a general review of the charter’s provisions.

A home rule charter gives a municipality the ability to set up its governance structure and outlines its authority and limitations. Municipalities that choose home rule can do anything that is not specifically denied by the state constitution, the General Assembly or the charter itself. McCandless became a home-rule community in 1975.

“It seems like a lot of heavy lifting to get something like that passed,” Councilman Michael Tarle said.

Council president Kim Zachary said imposing term limits raises “a big red flag” for her because it could make it difficult to attract competent people to serve.

“My concern with term limits is creating the same problem we got ourselves into with having committees that had to have people from certain areas,” she said. “If you have someone who’s termed out, and you have a person who says, ‘I know I’m going to get it because no one else has applied,’ that’s very concerning to me. As we know, it’s difficult to get people to serve on council.”

Council recently changed its rules for appointing residents to boards and commissions to eliminate requirements that representatives from each ward be appointed.

Zachary said there also is an argument that term limits can limit the power of voters to pick their government representatives.

“That’s what the election is for,” she said. “It’s up to the citizens to decide if they want someone to be reelected or not, so it does seem to take that out of the hands of citizens.”

Despite her concerns, Zachary asked Woods to come up with a formal proposal that can be placed on an upcoming agenda so council members have a clearer picture of what is being proposed.

Woods agreed to work with the town solicitor to draft a proposal, but no date has been set for when it will be discussed.