Voters to Decide on Council Term Limits

A municipal referendum that would set term limits for City Council members will go before voters Nov. 5.

Measure F would limit elected officials to two consecutive four-year terms. After eight consecutive years on the council, officials would have to take a two-year hiatus before seeking office again.

The incumbent council is split on Measure F.

Mayor Joe Erickson, now running for his second term, supports the limit. “I think people stay too long,” he said. “Sooner or later, you have to take a step back and move on.”

Erickson said multiple terms can slow down government, whereas newly elected officials invigorate the process with new ideas. “You need to keep people in there who are fired up.”

The City Council voted 3 to 2 earlier this year to place Measure F on the ballot. Councilmen Peter Buffa and Gary Monahan backed the measure with Erickson.

Councilwomen Sandra L. Genis and Mary Hornbuckle, who are stepping down voluntarily this year after eight and 12 years, respectively, dissented.

“In Costa Mesa, we haven’t needed it,” Hornbuckle said. “Candidates have either been voted out of office, which is the appropriate form of term limits, or they’ve limited their own terms by leaving when they’re finished.”

Harsher criticism came from Genis, who called Measure F “an insult to voters.” Genis, now a candidate for the Mesa Consolidated Water District’s board, said term limits would foster policy dictated more by appointed staff members rather than elected officials.