Tuesday night Maplewood City Council considered imposing term limits on themselves. Most are for it.
The council held the first two of three votes for bills that would facilitate term limits for council members. The final vote will be in January, when the full board can be there.
Currently council members serve four-year terms without term limits. The mayor is limited to two consecutive four-year terms. If approved both mayor and council members would transition to three-year terms, limited to three consecutive terms (nine years).
Three-year terms would allow a council member to run for mayor without being of jeopardy of losing his or her council seat if he loses the mayoral race.
The council, except for members David Cerven and Tim Dunn are in favor of term limits for council members. Cerven was at the meeting but Dunn was not. The final vote will be taken in January when Dunn can be present.
Council member Shawn Faulkingham said the current council is “extraordinary” and has accomplished a lot for the city, but term limits would give others a chance to run without running against an experienced incumbent.
After the meeting Cerven explained his opposition to term limits.
“Our current council functions really well,” he said. “In some future here, Marty (Corcoran, city manager) is going to retire, and we’re going to come into a point where for the first time in 30, whatever many years, we’ll have a new city manager, and if I’m the most experienced person on the council because everybody has cycled off — you’ve got to have at least a couple of people that have that experience.”
He said in a city the size of Maplewood not a lot of people are trying to get on the council. Others also said sometimes it’s difficult to fill committee positions, let alone council seats.
The council also approved:
- A request for the city to buy a 2015 3/4 ton Chevrolet Silverado extended cab compressed natural gas truck for $37,814, a 2015 3/4 ton Chevrolet crew cab diesel truck for $39,884 and a 2016 Ford hybrid Escape for $22,994.
- A request by Brian Pelletier of Larder and Cupboard for a packaged and Sunday packaged liquor license, with an original package tasting license.
- Putting on the April 5 ballot whether to eliminate the position of city treasurer. City Manager Marty Corcoran said the position hasn’t been filled for years, and is a hold-over from before Maplewood was a charter city. This will be voted on the final time at the Jan. 8 meeting.
- An ordinance that states signatures can’t be added to a petition to be on a ballot, if found insufficient, after the deadline has passed. This will be voted on the the final time at the Jan. 8 meeting.
- Allowing businesses to have projecting signs in the special business district. There is a small part of the special business district where projecting signs are prohibited, which was an oversight.
- A plat for the Sunnen Station Development, and approved a modification to building materials for the Porsche dealership, to be built there in 2016, with construction beginning in March.
- A request for Steve Jawor to operate a restaurant (sandwiches and soup) at the Great Harvest Bread Company (7360 Manchester Road). Jawor said on Wednesday that he’ll be ready to start serving sandwiches in January.
Term limits, while fine for an executive office like governor or president, are a horrible idea for legislatures and councils. They erode institutional memory and create an environment in which inexperienced legislators can be overpowered or easily fooled by outside influences (e.g., lobbyists).
Term limits have been an unmitigated disaster at the state level here in Missouri due to the loss of institutional knowledge. Perhaps they could consider an option where members of the city council can serve a set number of terms (two or three), then have to rotate off the board, but can run again after a set time off the council.
The proposed term limits allow Council members to serve up to 9 years continuously and Council members can technically sit out a year or two (depending on the cycle schedule) and run for the other seat in their ward or wait three years to run again for their old seat. They can also run for Mayor without losing their Council seat. Just as my constituents have had enough confidence in my abilities to allow me to run unopposed for the last two elections, I have confidence that there are qualified individuals out there that would take the opportunity to run, if the seat was availabile, and do a great job.
The term limits seem like a good idea. It takes a noble person to take this kind of action. The council truly seems to think about Maplewood instead of only themselves. I am so proud of this great council!