Term Limits Invalidated in General Law Cities : Litigation: Court of Appeal ruling clears the way for La Palma councilman to seek reelection. Laws in three cities and ballot measures in two others are affected.

An appeals court ruled Friday that La Palma may not limit the number of terms City Council members serve--a decision that invalidates laws in three Orange County cities and could nullify ballot measures in two more.

The ruling clears the way for La Palma Councilman Richard Polis, who brought the original lawsuit, to run for a third term on the Nov. 3 ballot, despite a 10-year-old law enacted by voters limiting council members to two terms.

More significant, the decision by the 4th District Court of Appeal effectively invalidates term-limit laws in La Palma, Villa Park and Dana Point. In addition, it will prevent term limit measures on the November ballots in Orange and Westminster from taking effect if approved, attorneys in the case said.

“This (decision) makes it very clear that those (ordinances) can’t be enforced absent some action by the state Legislature,” said John L. Fellows III, a La Palma city attorney who argued in support of term limits before the appeals court.

The court’s decision is binding and effectively invalidates term limits in general-law cities throughout the appellate court’s district, which includes the counties of Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino and San Diego, said Mark Rosen, Polis’ attorney.

A general law city is one that lacks a state charter, which allows it to adopt some laws that conflict with state laws. Nine of Orange County’s 31 cities have state charters. The ruling will not affect those cities, including Anaheim and Newport Beach, which also have term-limit measures on the November ballot.

Besides the court ruling’s effect locally, attorneys throughout the state may cite it when challenging the validity of term limits in general-law cities at the Superior Court level, Rosen said.

“We’ve now had three (appellate-court level) decisions in the last 12 years that say term limits are illegal for local bodies,” Rosen said. “This one, coming as it does when term limits are running high, makes this real significant.”

Polis said Friday that he is happy his lawsuit against the city is over. The decision on whether he should serve a third term on the City Council “is where it should have been all along, and that’s back in the hands of the people.”

La Palma’s city clerk initially had denied Polis’ attempt to run for a third term because it violated the city’s longstanding term-limit law. Polis sued the city to be allowed on the ballot, saying voters should decide whether a candidate may serve three terms.

The ruling will not stop term-limit supporters in Yorba Linda from encouraging voters to support the term-limit measure on the city’s Nov. 3 ballot, City Councilman John M. Gullixson said Friday. The council placed that measure on the ballot with a proviso that it would not take effect unless the Legislature adopts a law allowing term limits in general-law cities.

Gullixson predicts the Legislature will adopt such a law soon, although two attempts during its last session failed when the bills died in committee.

“It’s just a matter of time,” he said. “The Legislature’s refusal to give the public what it wants is mean stubbornness at this point, because they’re still licking their wounds over Prop. 140.”

Proposition 140, passed in 1990, limits the terms of state legislators and other state officials.

“This is a political issue and the Legislature has got to give people what they want,” Gullixson said.

In his nine-page unanimous ruling, Presiding Justice David G. Sills referred to Prop. 140 and acknowledged that “term limits are enjoying something of a renaissance today.” But the court was not trying to decide whether term limits are good, he wrote. The issue is that state law prohibits cities from adopting any restrictions on candidates wishing to run for office.

General-law cities wishing to have term limits must rely on the state to change the law, Fellows said.

“My suggestion is any general-law city interested in term limits should take up the Legislative torch,” Fellows said.

Times librarian Sheila A. Kern contributed to this story.