Exit133

November 29, 2008 · Derek

County Council Looks to Extend Term Limits

We didn’t realize that this term limits were going to be such a hot topic this year. First, the Tacoma City Council tries to remove term limits. It failed, but not after being mentioned in newspapers all over the country. Now, the Pierce County Council is looking to extend their terms to three terms. Hmmm… I sense a pattern.

Do you care?

There’s a special meeting of the County Council on Tuesday to discuss the charter change.

Details
Tuesday, December 2nd at 5:30 pm
Sumner City Hall
1104 Maple Street, Sumner

Link to The News Tribune

Previously on Exit133 (search)

5 comments

  • nos November 29, 2008

    Didn’t we vote this down?

  • Bob November 29, 2008

    No, that was Tacoma, not Pierce County.

    Muri’s proposed amendments still violate the constitution and County charter prohibition on having 2 subjects in the same title. Subject 1. Change when elections are held. Subject 2. Change term limits for Exec, council, etc…

    They may try to weasel it by making the title “related to the election of county offices” then shoehorn both into one. Don’t buy it.

    And no, I don’t really care, I’m just pissed that Muri thinks the people are so stupid that they can’t handle having national and local elections on the same ballot. He’s from the school district, remember, where they always put elections on odd years, because with a lower turn out, its easier to pass bonds (only those who really care will vote, and most of those will vote yes.)

    Let’s hope the County prosecutor, not the Council’s in-house lawyers (whose jobs depend on them saying “it’s ok’) will give everyone a real legal opinion on the single subject rule issue.

  • J. Cote December 1, 2008

    I’m one of those that DO care. Term limits were put in place in order to take career politicians out of office. Yes, the electorate is lazy in that, if they don’t know about who is running for a certain office, they will vote for a familiar name. But the majority of the voting population shouldn’t have to suffer through inept politicians just because of those that are too lazy to research candidate. Face it, Washam was elected because his name was familiar looking to a lot of people, not because he was the best candidate. The people are lazy, not stupid.

  • NEAL December 1, 2008

    We have a county charter that is reviewed every 10 years for issues like this.

    There is no popular groundswell of support for this. If the people want the change to the charter, let the people petition the council, otherwise HANDS OFF our county charter, dear council.

  • Squid December 2, 2008

    JCote@3: Point taken, but they are stupid to be so lazy.

    Also, I don’t want to quibble, but the ORIGINAL idea of the term limit was not to keep career politicians out of office, though that may be a beneficial by-product. Term-limits were created to keep too much power out of a single individual’s hands, to prevent a dictatorship-type situation and designed for positions where a lot of power is granted an individual, such as president, governor, mayor, etc. That doesn’t mean it’s a bad thing for councils, boards, etc. But that is an evolution of the original purpose of term-limits. It seldom happens that an unacceptable level of power accumulates in the hands of a single council member.

    We might be best served to keep people from being career politicians. We might also be best served in the end by getting what we deserve.

    I will agree there is no groundswell to get either extend or eliminate term limits.