Author of Prop. G Has One Regret: It Cost Too Much : Term limits: The initiative took 41,000 signatures and $65,000 of his own money. “It was all worth it,” Dennis Carroll says.

Dennis Carroll figured it would not cost much to get a term-limits measure on the Long Beach ballot.

His initial strategy was simple. “I’ll do the legal work myself, get a few volunteers to help me get the signatures, and spend about $2,000,” he said, smiling at his own naivete.

Ten months, 41,000 signatures and $65,000 from his own savings later, Proposition G was approved by Long Beach voters. It was the only one of four city propositions to pass Tuesday.

Carroll said he has one regret.

“I had no idea this was going to cost what it did. If I had known what I was doing, I would have solicited small donations. . . .”

The measure prohibits City Council members who have already served two terms from being listed on the ballot. They may run again only as write-in candidates.

At first, Carroll considered running for City Council in the 4th District where Councilman Thomas Clark has served for decades. Carroll has lived in the district, near Cal State Long Beach, for 15 years.

“The guy representing my district has been there 26 years,” said Carroll, a criminal lawyer. “And he’s a good man, but it seemed to me that some new ideas, or new enthusiasm might be productive.”

Carroll’s inclination to run for office was stopped by the large sums the council incumbents raised for their reelection campaigns.

“I was shocked by what was being spent. They were spending $50,000 to $100,000 for a part-time job,” he said. “The incumbents have these tremendous advantages. They can mail things for free, and their special interests are already in place to support their campaigns.”

Carroll said it dawned on him that, as a lawyer, he could change the whole system. “It would probably be a better contribution to Long Beach than just being a city councilman who could be basically ignored.”

So he decided to write a term-limits initiative. He said limiting the politicians’ time in office would be a step toward opening city government to concerned people who don’t have the money to run against an incumbent.

The initiative was not directed at any particular council member but “against the process that bends and shapes what they do,” said Carroll, 50, who worked as a public defender for 18 years before he started a solo practice in criminal law five years ago. He said he plans to change careers. He wants to give inspirational seminars and write a book based on his philosophy that anyone--even lawyers--can enjoy life and still achieve their goals.

Carroll, a soft-spoken man who exudes warmth and laughs easily, said he sits in his back yard each morning, “watching the sky, watching the ants, and some amazing things have come up. When I do something now, I find it really fits with what I want to do, and then I can put my full energy into it, because I’m not at cross-purposes with myself.”

Carroll had a single-minded determination to get the proposition on the ballot. He started working on it in January after he gave up on the idea of running for office.

“I had never drawn up an initiative before. It was quite complex, and I had to learn all about it, so I called cities throughout California and the United States to find out a good way to do it.”

While writing the measure, he began organizing volunteers. The first was his wife, Linda, a special education administrator in the Long Beach Unified School District.

“Then I asked my friends. There was a race going on in the 4th District, and some of those volunteers helped. And I asked those people to ask their friends,” he said. He was able to round up a crew of about 25.

“I heard about what he was doing, and I called him,” said Ben Haro, a local activist who had formed the Newly United Voter Organization in Long Beach. “I was tired of the politicians in Long Beach,” he said.

Volunteer Philip Zimmermann, a real estate developer who has lived in Long Beach 13 years, said it has become a city in decline.

“Some of those city councilmen have been around since dinosaurs walked the Earth,” he said. “If any of them had a fresh idea, it would die of loneliness.”

Carroll and the small cadre of volunteers canvassed the malls, shopping centers and streets of Long Beach. Their biggest obstacle was time.

In early March, he presented the final draft of the measure to the City Council. “I told them this would be a good idea, and suggested they place it on the ballot. They said, ‘No, we think it’s a bad idea.’ ”

To get the measure on the November ballot, 23,780 signatures of registered voters had to be collected by June 16. He went way beyond the goal, to be sure of having enough signatures left after duplications, non-residents and unregistered names were disqualified.

“Everybody said it was impossible, but I didn’t want to wait. . .,” he said.

So he hired a signature-gathering firm for $51,000. Adding the cost of signs, handbills and a last-minute television commercial and mailings, Carroll spent $65,000 of the savings he had set aside for retirement.

While there was no organized opposition to term limits, most Long Beach politicians were against Proposition G. Some wondered why Carroll donated so much money to the ballot measure.

“Very few people have spent that much money on an issue like this,” Mayor Ernie Kell said. “If he had spent that much money (running for office), he’d be a councilman by now. It does seem strange.”

Kell said he has always been opposed to term limits. “This is not a dictatorship. We have elections, and that’s what a democracy is all about. If you have a bad person in office, you vote him out.”

Vice Mayor Jeffrey A. Kellogg argued that the problems in the Legislature show the failings of term limits. “Sacramento is in the term-limits mode now, and what (career politicians) are doing is trying to position themselves for another job. That is one of the fallouts of term limits. We’re going to have more lobbyists than citizens in this state.”

However, term limit ballot measures did well across the country in Tuesday’s elections. At least a dozen states, including California, passed limits on their representatives to Congress, and several other cities restricted their council members.

Carroll, relishing his success, said he is happy to be a part of history. “It was all worth it. Years later, we’ll see this as a watershed event.”