Term limits issue might surface in council race
One issue sure to surface in the Nov. 4 contest for a majority of City Council seats is term limits, especially since three of the nine contenders will have spent a total half century on the five-member panel by the end of the year.
Incumbent Councilman Hank Wedaa has the most time at the dais, totaling a bit more than 30 years, when his current term expires in December. Former Councilman Mark Schwing finished 12 years, and Mayor Jim Winder will complete eight years.
But the city’s term limit law, which applies to terms “beginning after the effective date of the ordinance,” Dec. 13, 1996, covers only Winder’s two terms because Wedaa’s seventh and Schwing’s third began Dec. 3, 1996.
Wedaa’s eighth term starting June 2007 also doesn’t count, since the law bans more than three “full” terms, and Wedaa was elected to an 18-month “short” term.
And the law’s only exception—defining an unexpired term longer than one-half of the original term as a full term for appointees—also doesn’t apply to Wedaa’s current term.
Yorba Lindans twice recorded a wish to limit council members to two terms and once approved a lifetime three-term limitation, with all three votes of landslide proportions.
A 1992 advisory vote for a two-term limit won by 78.5 percent, 17,064 to 4,817, but the council didn’t act for four years, until two measures were placed on the 1996 ballot: one called for a two consecutive term limit and the other a lifetime limit of three full terms.
The two-term limit earned a 60.4 percent positive response, 13,008 to 8,517, but the three-term limit became law because of a larger 68.6 percent yes vote, 15,087 to 6,906.
The measures were put on the ballot by then-council members John Gullixson, Barbara Kiley and Dan Welch, who argued for a “yes” vote on both “if you generally favor term limits” or “yes on the one you prefer” but warned “a no vote could act to defeat both.”
Gene Wisner, who was appointed to one partial term and elected to four terms, wrote the ballot arguments against both measures.
Interestingly, voters turned down Irwin Fried’s bid for a fifth term, while voting for the two-term limit in 1992, but re-elected Wedaa to a seventh and Schwing to a third, while favoring the two- and three-term limits in 1996.
A correction to last week’s column: Keri Wilson ran 1,456 votes, not 757, behind John Anderson in the 2006 council race. And news in the water board race: Cynthia Verdugo-Peralta didn’t file for the contest, despite earning the YLRRR endorsement.
A FINAL NOTE
No surprise: This year John McCain has raised more money than Barack Obama from Yorba Lindans: $23,575 to $12,650 in contributions of $200 or more through June 30.
Incumbent Councilman Hank Wedaa has the most time at the dais, totaling a bit more than 30 years, when his current term expires in December. Former Councilman Mark Schwing finished 12 years, and Mayor Jim Winder will complete eight years.
But the city’s term limit law, which applies to terms “beginning after the effective date of the ordinance,” Dec. 13, 1996, covers only Winder’s two terms because Wedaa’s seventh and Schwing’s third began Dec. 3, 1996.
Wedaa’s eighth term starting June 2007 also doesn’t count, since the law bans more than three “full” terms, and Wedaa was elected to an 18-month “short” term.
And the law’s only exception—defining an unexpired term longer than one-half of the original term as a full term for appointees—also doesn’t apply to Wedaa’s current term.
Yorba Lindans twice recorded a wish to limit council members to two terms and once approved a lifetime three-term limitation, with all three votes of landslide proportions.
A 1992 advisory vote for a two-term limit won by 78.5 percent, 17,064 to 4,817, but the council didn’t act for four years, until two measures were placed on the 1996 ballot: one called for a two consecutive term limit and the other a lifetime limit of three full terms.
The two-term limit earned a 60.4 percent positive response, 13,008 to 8,517, but the three-term limit became law because of a larger 68.6 percent yes vote, 15,087 to 6,906.
The measures were put on the ballot by then-council members John Gullixson, Barbara Kiley and Dan Welch, who argued for a “yes” vote on both “if you generally favor term limits” or “yes on the one you prefer” but warned “a no vote could act to defeat both.”
Gene Wisner, who was appointed to one partial term and elected to four terms, wrote the ballot arguments against both measures.
Interestingly, voters turned down Irwin Fried’s bid for a fifth term, while voting for the two-term limit in 1992, but re-elected Wedaa to a seventh and Schwing to a third, while favoring the two- and three-term limits in 1996.
A correction to last week’s column: Keri Wilson ran 1,456 votes, not 757, behind John Anderson in the 2006 council race. And news in the water board race: Cynthia Verdugo-Peralta didn’t file for the contest, despite earning the YLRRR endorsement.
A FINAL NOTE
No surprise: This year John McCain has raised more money than Barack Obama from Yorba Lindans: $23,575 to $12,650 in contributions of $200 or more through June 30.
posted by Jim Drummond at 12:00 PM
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