Glendale Expected to Set Term Limits for Ballot

The City Council is expected to decide tonight whether a controversial proposal to limit council members, and possibly school board members, to two consecutive four-year terms in office will be decided by the voters in the Nov. 5 presidential election.

In November, council members voted 3 to 2 in favor of placing the term limits proposal on the ballot, but did not fix the date of the election. Since then, a number of critics have assailed the measure and its backers--a committee of about 12 influential business people, all but three of whom have remained anonymous.

Many of the term-limit advocates have been involved in local politics, either as candidates or behind the scenes, and some critics of the measure have accused them of having a hidden agenda--removing the incumbents from City Hall so they can run for their jobs. But backers of the proposal deny the charges.

“That’s got nothing to do with it,” said Gerald Barrone, spokesman for the group. “To my knowledge, nobody on this committee has any aspirations whatsoever to run for the council. I think these are just genuinely concerned people who want to see a change in the council, and not have people so entrenched in there.”

If approved, the term-limits measure would be retroactive, meaning that Councilwoman Eileen Givens, who is serving her second term in office, could not seek reelection in 1999. Givens, along with first-term council members Sheldon Baker and Mary Ann Plumley, have said they support putting the issue on the ballot for voters to decide.

The measure would allow candidates to run for the same office again after a two-year hiatus.

Mayor Rick Reyes, serving his first term in office, and Councilman Larry Zarian, who is serving his fourth term but has stated he will not seek reelection in 1999, have opposed putting the issue before the voters, saying the term-limit committee should have gauged public support for the issue by collecting signatures to qualify for the ballot directly, without the council’s help.

Zarian said Monday he sees little support in the community for the issue, and he, too, believes there may be “other motives” behind the measure rather than merely making public office more accessible, as the measure’s backers have stated.

“Some people don’t want to campaign hard and earn the office, they want to make it easier for themselves,” he said. “This proposal bothers me, because it says that not only are we going to take away the right of a candidate who wants to serve more than two terms, but we are also going to take away the people’s right to elect who they want.”

Rather than collect signatures, Barrone said the committee asked the council to put the issue on the ballot because the number of signatures required to qualify for the ballot, about 10,000, is “mind boggling.” A previous drive to impose term limits on the Glendale council failed when its backers were able to collect only several hundred signatures.

Barrone also said he expects all but a few of the committee’s members to reveal their identities soon. “I don’t think they’re hiding,” he said.