Council Puts Term Limit Issue on Ballot : Government: It also establishes an ethics committee and will study the creation of an independent redistricting board.

The San Diego City Council on Monday placed on next June’s ballot a proposal to limit elected officials to two terms.

The council also established a city ethics committee and agreed to study creation of an independent redistricting board.

In a unanimous vote that represented a critical, long-sought victory for Mayor Maureen O’Connor, the council, with little debate, decided to allow voters to determine in June whether council members, the mayor and the city attorney should be limited to serving two consecutive four-year terms.

“It’s taken 20 years, but it was worth the wait,” a jubilant O’Connor said after the meeting, noting that she has advocated a two-term limit since joining the council in 1971. “I think the people want this change, and they’re finally going to have a chance to make it.”

Although that potential change awaits voters’ judgment, the council’s other actions Monday seem likely to alter significantly the political dynamics within City Hall.

By an 8-1 vote, the council created a 15-member Elections, Campaign and Governmental Ethics Advisory Board and agreed to review a proposal to set up an independent redistricting commission to remove that politically thorny question from the council’s jurisdiction.

The ethics committee, which will advise the council on policy issues ranging from campaign contribution limits to general governmental ethics, is seen by O’Connor and other proponents as a vehicle for updating and strengthening the city’s ethical guidelines.

Although Monday’s action and the City Charter give the mayor the right to appoint all of the commission’s members, O’Connor pledged to name seven members herself and the eight others in accordance with the wishes of the eight council members.

Despite that assurance, Councilwoman Abbe Wolfsheimer voted against the measure, saying she fears that future mayors may be inclined to “make political appointments,” thereby undermining the committee’s independence.

Wolfsheimer also voiced the only opposition to the proposed two-term limit, calling it “damaging to electoral freedoms,” but eventually joined her colleagues in placing the issue before voters on next June’s primary ballot.

“When you tell voters they cannot elect candidates after they’ve served two terms, you’re telling (them) they don’t have civil rights,” Wolfsheimer said.

O’Connor, however, noted that Monday’s action does not impose term limits but simply puts the question before voters. In addition, the mayor stressed that 58% of San Diego voters supported a statewide ballot proposition last fall setting term limits for state legislators.

“The voters sent a clear message,” said O’Connor, who has already announced that she will not run for another term. “Even though I’ve been supporting this for 20 years, the fact that the community had a vehicle to express their opinion (caused) the council (to) finally decide that they’re serious and that’s what they want.”

The proposed two-term limit would begin with officeholders elected after next June and would first affect the mayoral and city attorney posts, both of which are on next year’s ballot.

The limit applies only to consecutive terms in a particular position or council district. It would not prevent a two-term council member from running for mayor or for another council district seat. Council members who want to continue in office could also sit out one term and then run for their former seat in the next election.

One of the major arguments for term limits is that they guarantee periodic turnover in elective offices and produce competitive campaigns in races that might otherwise be dominated indefinitely by incumbents’ name recognition and fund-raising advantages.

However, recent elections have brought substantial turnover to the council, a fact cited by term limit opponents in arguing that incumbents’ reelection or ouster is a decision better left in the hands of voters.

During the past four years, a majority of the San Diego City Council seats contested have been won by non-incumbents. In 1987, incumbents’ retirements allowed newcomers to win all four seats on the council, and both in 1989 and this fall, voters defeated two of the four incumbents seeking reelection. Also, last April, Councilwoman Linda Bernhardt was removed from office in a recall campaign and was replaced by former corporate lawyer Tom Behr.

The last member to serve more than two terms was Leon Williams, who left City Hall to become a county supervisor in the early 1980s.

Nevertheless, Councilman Bob Filner said the term-limit proposal has “symbolic significance to voters.”

“Part of the public perception is that there is a need for turnover and change, and that one of the reasons for unresponsive government is longevity,” he said. “That is debatable, but the will of the people is clear, and we ought to go along with them.”