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Banishing city official’s lifetime ban
by Jason Dietrich
Familiar faces could reappear on the Redondo school board and city council if voters decide, on Tuesday, to modify term limits on elected officials.
Measures A and B would allow termed-out city council and school board members to run for office again after "sitting out" for three years.
Currently, Redondo Beach mayors, city council and school Board members are limited to serving two terms in each office. Measure A removes the lifetime ban on the mayor and city council members, Measure B does the same thing for school board members. Some school board incumbents have served more than 20 years on the board.
The three-year interruption was chosen to prevent council members from moving to a different district, and running there two years later. The break also prevents school board and city council members from being barred from office an extra term after serving slightly more than a four-year term in the event of a run-off election.
Proponents of the measures say the "sit out" period allows experienced city leaders to continue making contributions to the city, at the same time preventing an incumbent from remaining in office indefinitely.
"It takes an understanding of the way the city works and an understanding of the kinds of issues that face a city to be effective. For people who haven’t been involved, it takes time to understand how to get things done. The city should be tapping into their resource of experienced leaders," said Howard Sachar, who authored ballot statements supporting the measures.
The measures’ opponents say leaving the system of term limits in place keeps elected officials from getting too comfortable in their jobs.
"When someone’s been in office eight, 12 or even 16 years, they start to think that the office belongs to them. They loose some of their connection to the people that elected them. The question is, are we going to preserve a museum of career politicians or a garden of citizen legislators," said civic activist Greg Anderson.
Term limits were placed on Redondo Beach’s mayor and city council members in 1975, after several city council members initiated a ballot measure that limited the mayor and city council members to two terms. The measure passed, removing the then-current mayor, and a pair of city council members who had already served two terms. In 1997, voters approved a measure that also limited school board members to two terms, but allowed the incumbents to serve two more terms. School officials sued to keep the measure off of the ballot. The case went to the California Court of Appeals, which ruled that two-term limit extended to the Redondo Beach School Board
Former councilman and current harbor commissioner Ron Cawdry said the passage of the measures would help the city council avoid re-inventing the wheel every time the council turns over.
"I see some of the same problems that we ran into in the ‘80s coming back up before the city council. And since there’s no one on the council with a history that goes back that far, they don’t always know how or why certain things were done," he said.
Anderson said that by keeping the city’s political positions in constant rotation, fresh blood, with fresh ideas, would be encouraged to run for office.
"Term limits energize the city every time there’s an election. Not to mention, expanding the opportunities for women and minorities in city government," he said. ER