YORBA LINDA : Council Term Limits Proposed for Ballot

A City Council member plans to launch a drive to place a referendum on the November, 1992, ballot that would limit council members to three consecutive terms.

Councilman John M. Gullixson, who proposed term limits when he campaigned for the council a year ago, said his efforts have been boosted by the state Supreme Court’s recent ruling upholding Proposition 140, which limits the terms of state legislators.

“It’s no longer dead, dead, dead,” Gullixson said. “It’s very much alive.”

Councilmen Henry W. Wedaa and Irwin M. Fried have opposed term limits ever since Gullixson proposed an ordinance earlier this year that would have imposed the limits without a referendum. Since then, Gullixson and other city officials have been unsuccessful in persuading state lawmakers to pass legislation that would remove legal barriers to the term limits.

Councilman Gene Wisner, who originally supported the proposal, has since expressed concern that the limits would be neither practical nor enforceable. Wisner’s change of heart has left council support for the limits in doubt.

Despite this, Gullixson said he plans first to call for a council vote on whether to place the measure on the ballot, probably in the next few months. If the council votes no, he said, he will begin to collect signatures to place the referendum on the ballot. Robert Meador, the president of the Yorba Linda Chamber of Commerce, will head the drive along with Gullixson.