GARDEN GROVE : Council to Discuss Term Limitations

City officials on Tuesday night are expected to consider supporting pending state legislation that would permit general-law cities to impose a two-term limit on City Council members and other elected local officials.

While a wave of calls for expanded term limits has swept the state, officials in Garden Grove said they believe the city is barred from setting term limits because it is a general-law city that has no charter of its own and instead follows state law.

City Atty. Stuart B. Scutter said a state Court of Appeal case holds that state law preempts general-law cities on term limitations and that cities cannot impose limits unless the law is changed.

Nevertheless, Councilman Mark Leyes said last week that he doesn’t want to wait for the bill to make its way through the legislative mill in Sacramento before acting and will stick to his guns and ask Council colleagues to put the term-limit proposal on this November’s ballot for city residents to decide.

Leyes said he will make the request next month, when there will be a full council after the return of Mayor W.E. (Walt) Donovan, who is on a trip.

Councilman Frank Kessler, opposing Leyes in November’s election for mayor, called Leyes’ proposal a political ploy and a violation of current state law.

“This isn’t even a story worth being brought up,” Kessler, a former Garden Grove police chief, said. “The law hasn’t been changed. It’s illegal to do that. I can never support action that’s blatantly illegal.”

Kessler said that while he supports term limitations, he does not want the Garden Grove council striking out on its own to achieve them.

Leyes said he intends to push on with his plans for November, claiming that it would save taxpayers the expense of a special election after action by the Legislature.

Leyes said local politicians would be risking the wrath of the people should they challenge a local ordinance that is approved by the voters.

“If they want to challenge it, let them,” he said. “They would have to fight the ordinance that was approved by popular vote. They would be (flouting) the wishes of the people.

“People who are in office so long get dogmatic and they stop listening to the opinions of people in the community,” he said. “They’ve almost developed an arrogance . . . now and in the past.”

Leyes is completing his second year on the council and Kessler is winding up his fourth year. Robert F. Dinsen has served 12 consecutive years. Donovan has served 16 years, with breaks in between stints. J. Tilman Williams has been on for 11 years, also with intervals.

Garden Grove officials tonight will discuss a bill by Assemblyman Dean Andal of Stockton that an Andal aide said would permit cities and other local agencies such as school boards and boards of supervisors to impose two term limits of four years on elected officials.