A.G. Gancarski
Back in the early 1990s, the people of Jacksonville voted via referendum to limit city officials to two consecutive terms.
Now, almost three decades later, a Jacksonville City Councilman wants another referendum — to amend that two-term limit, making it three terms for every elected office but that of the Mayor.
In addition to giving another term to City Council members, the measure would afford constitutional officers and School Board members a three-term limit, pending voter approval in a 2018 referendum.
The bill (2017-358), introduced and carried by Finance Committeeman Matt Schellenberg, has been a priority of his for over a year; Schellenberg’s take is that Jacksonville voters are deprived of “institutional knowledge” if their Council members were restricted only to two four-year terms, as has been the case since the 1990s.
Tuesday night will tell the tale as to whether or not that referendum moves forward, as the full City Council gets to vote on the measure.
Last Tuesday, the bill was voted through two committees, Finance and Rules, each with an identical 5-2 margin in support.
Those who backed the bill hit the institutional knowledge talking points.
Councilman Reggie Brown‘s take? “The problem years back is that people lost confidence. Things are coming back now.”
Councilwoman Katrina Brown is willing to do three terms, she said, saying that those who did not want to do so “just don’t run.”
“I know on the Council we look at things in terms of what are citizens going to think, so we don’t look some kind of way,” Brown said.
However, Brown was willing to “look some kind of way” in support of a prevailing principle as important as this one.
Chairman Garrett Dennis found a way to blame the city’s pension crisis on term limits, stating without real proof that removing the experienced council members led to Jacksonville’s pension peril.
The Rules Committee was more measured, but hit the same notes.
There were some objections, of course, such as from Councilman Scott Wilson, who believed the community would “overwhelmingly reject” the measure, given that the public doesn’t like elected officials anymore than they did in the 1990s.
“I don’t see what we’ve done to change their opinion about a third term,” Wilson said.
One important person yet to vote on the measure — Council President Anna Brosche — is ready to push this to the ballot and let the people decide.
“The increase of term limits was a thoughtful recommendation from the task force on consolidated government,” Brosche said, “and I respect the work of the task force. I can see both sides of this issue, and I am not afraid to put this question in the hands of the voters in the form of a referendum.”
Council business being conducted in the shadow of a referendum to remove term limits almost certainly will make for interesting public comment in the next year.
One key player — Mayor Lenny Curry — is officially agnostic on the matter; he told us last week that, for him, eight years is plenty of time in the Mayor’s Office.
Those close to the Mayor are a bit more voluble, with one noting that, in the nascent days of the Brosche Presidency, Council has discussed raising the millage rate and changing term limits.
Two big stories are worth watching on Tuesday night.
One story: does anyone who voted yes in committee flip their vote Tuesday?
Another story: if the measure passes, will the Mayor dust off the veto pen?
