WESTMINSTER : Council to Review 2-Year Limit on Term

The City Council tonight will consider repealing an ordinance that limited Councilwoman Lyn Gillespie to a two-year term when she was elected in 1988.

The 1986 ordinance limited the candidate with the least number of votes in the November, 1988, general election to a two-year term in order to align City Council terms, City Clerk Mary Lou Morey said.

Terms became staggered in 1984 when residents voted to directly elect the city’s mayor every two years.

“The city wound up electing three council seats and the office of mayor at one election and only one council seat and the mayor at the next,” said Morey. “The ordinance allowed for things to be evened up.”

Gillespie, whose campaign cost $52,000 for a two-year term, received the fewest votes of the successful candidates in the 1988 election. If the ordinance is repealed, she will not have to run for reelection until November, 1992.

Gillespie, 34, said the ordinance may be unconstitutional and is considering challenging its legality.

“I’ve had several people tell me that it may not be constitutional, but since it doesn’t happen very often, no one has challenged it,” Gillespie said.

City Atty. Richard Jones, who researched the legality of the ordinance, said: “There’s enough of an argument there. There are some legal experts who say you can’t limit the terms like that, and they would like to see that type of action challenged.”

If the council does not repeal the ordinance, Gillespie would have to challenge it at her own expense.

“I haven’t made that decision yet,” she said.