NEWPORT BEACH : 2-Term Limit Yet to Qualify for Ballot

Members of a residents group hoping to limit City Council members to two terms, or eight consecutive years in office, say they still need about 1,500 signatures to qualify the proposal for the November ballot.

The group, Newport Residents to Limit Council Terms, held a rally Saturday outside City Hall and spokeswoman Janine Gault said that about 5,000 signatures had been collected. For the City Charter Amendment to be put on the ballot, 15% of 43,322 registered voters need to sign the petitions by July 2.

On Monday, the City Council discussed the petition drive and considered two alternatives to the initiative that they may also place on the November ballot.

Unlike the proposal of the residents group, these options allow the council members who will be running in the fall to complete their terms if elected, even if they have been in office for more than eight years. The residents’ group amendment would take effect immediately, meaning that council members Evelyn Hart and Donald A. Strauss, if elected, would have to resign. Hart has not yet announced whether she will run for a fourth term in November.

At the session Monday, Strauss said he feels a system that would force him out of office days after election was “not really American.”

“I have no idea whether or not the matter will pass, but if it did, then it is apparent that I would then be out of a job after about 15 days,” he said, adding that he spent about $26,000 in the last election campaign and has already started preparing for the 1990 elections.

Of the seven members of the council, four--Ruthelyn Plummer, Strauss, John C. Cox Jr. and Evelyn R. Hart--are in their third term of office. Strauss and Hart are up for reelection in November. Currently there is no limit to the number of terms that a council member can serve.