Taking names for term limits

“The most valuable asset you have in a campaign is time,” said Bill Baber, an attorney who is working on behalf of the proponents, the La Mesa Term Limits Committee.

If they had waited for the City Council to debate the issue and then decide not to put the question to voters, the proponents would have had less time to gather signatures, said Baber, who is also an elected member of the La Mesa-Spring Valley School District School Board.

The proposal is enact a limit of three consecutive four-year terms as either mayor or city councilmember. After three consecutive terms in either position, the incumbent would have to wait four years before being eligible for office again.

The La Mesa Term Limits Committee will need to gather at least 3,306 valid signatures to qualify for the ballot. They will have 180 days to collect the signatures from the time the City Clerk receives the official title and summary of the ballot measure, which the group submitted on Nov. 21. Baber said the group plans to begin collecting signatures on Nov. 23.

The group will probably rely on a combination of paid and volunteer signature-gatherers, said David Smyle, a member of the group.

The last time La Mesa voters had an opportunity to weigh in on the question of term limits was June 2010, when voters approved Proposition B to impose term limits on members of the county Board of Supervisors.

Prop. B won the support of two-thirds of La Mesans who cast a vote on the proposition, so the La Mesa Term Limits Committee is very confident that the measure will qualify for the ballot and ultimately win voter approval, said City Councilmember Kristine Alessio, who has been an outspoken term limits supporter.

“I have received overwhelming public support for this idea,” Alessio said. “This has by far been the most well received idea since I’ve been on the council.”

Because Mayor Art Madrid has held elected office for so many years, many, including the mayor, have questioned whether this is an attempt to force him out of office.

Alessio denies that analysis.

“This is not an attempt to get rid of Art Madrid,” she said. “I think that’s Art Madrid just being hypersensitive and paranoid.”

In fact, the proposed term limit rules would affect all members equally. If it passes, any Mayor or City Councilmember whose term begins after election day in November 2014 would be allowed to serve three total terms. Terms that began before November 2014 would not be counted toward the limit.

That means that Madrid would be eligible to win three more terms before the law would require him to take a break from office.

“It would mean that Art couldn’t be mayor between the ages of 93 and 97,” Baber said.

Councilmember Ruth Sterling, who is the longest-serving member of the City Council and a supporter of term limits, told Madrid at the Nov. 12 City Council meeting that there was no way the term limits proposal could be targeted at him.

“You’re just barking because you’re vindictive and you want to quarrel,” Sterling said.

Madrid said his statements were justified.

“I was asked by a number of people, ‘Do you think they’re targeting you?’” he said. “And I have an opinion and I said yes.”

Adding the term limits question to the ballot will make the election slightly more expensive for the city. The City Clerk’s office estimates that it will cost $10,000 to $15,000 to verify the signatures on the petitions and as much as $20,000 to add the measure to the ballot.

The last time an incumbent City Councilmember lost an election was 1992.

“Term limits matter because we now live in a world where name recognition and incumbency are basically determining our elections,” Alessio said. “We need to even the playing field for everyone.”