By Adam Swift
This November, voters might get the chance to let their opinion be heard on term limits.
At Monday night’s city council meeting, Councillor-at-Large Michelle Kelley introduced a motion requesting a non-binding ballot question in November asking voters if they would support term limits for elected city officials.
The proposal was moved to the May 12 meeting of the council’s legislative affairs subcommittee.
Earlier this year, Council President Marc Silvestri introduced a motion asking the council to approve a home-rule petition for term limits. That motion was also set to be discussed at the May 12 subcommittee meeting, but Silvestri removed that motion and signed on to Kelley’s motion for the non-binding ballot question.
Even if voters support term limits if the question comes to the ballot, the council would still have the ultimate say on sending a home-rule petition to the state legislature for approval.
“After the discussion we had on term limits at the last meeting, I decided to submit this motion,” said Kelley. “I think it is apparent to everyone that residents really want to weigh in on this issue and have their voices heard. This simple ballot question would empower residents to have a say in shaping their government structure and would allow for direct democracy.”
Kelley said a council vote on term limits without input from the public would allow for the appearance of a conflict of interest.
“If we vote on this issue, we are voting on our own job security, which creates an appearance of impropriety,”
Kelley noted that some councillors have stated that the current election process provides for a kind of term limits since voters can decide not to return an incumbent to office if they are not happy with them.
“This argument fails miserably, because when incumbents run unopposed repeatedly, it fails there and there is no democracy in that,” she said. “In the last 10 municipal elections, incumbents ran unopposed 31 times. Incumbency and name recognition in Revere act as potential deterrents to newcomers who would otherwise enter a race.”
Ward 4 Councillor Paul Argenzio has stated that he does not personally support term limits, but that he would support putting the question on the ballot.
Councillor-at-Large Robert Haas, III noted that he believes the council operates best when there is a mix of newcomers and veteran leadership, and that the term limits would limit that veteran leadership.
