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American Canyon discusses city council term limits - Napa Valley Register

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American Canyon City Hall
Rachel Raskin-Zrihen

American Canyon residents will help decide what a potential ballot measure on term limits for the city council and mayor seats might look like.

The city plans to do a survey of some type to get public input. Then the American Canyon City Council on Dec. 7 could take the results and try to craft a term limit measure, possibly for the June 2022 election.

There could be two ballot measures — one for the mayor's seat and one for four city council seats.

One question is how many four-year terms the mayor and council members should be allowed to have. Another is, once reaching the limit, whether the person should barred from ever running again or subject to a two-year break or four-year break.

"There needs to be some description of the relative merits of each of these options so people can weigh them, versus just saying, 'The quickest way of getting rid of the bums is what I support,'" Vice Mayor Mark Joseph said. "Because that's really counter-productive."

The general opinion on the city council is that term limits are popular with voters in just about any community where they are proposed.

“Whatever we put on the ballot is going to be approved, so we have to be very careful what to put on the ballot,” Joseph said.

The city council in-and-of-itself cannot impose term limits. But it can place a measure on the ballot and let the voters decide.

On Tuesday, the city council tried to agree on a term limit ballot measure. The details proved to be a stumbling block.

City staff suggested a limit of three consecutive four-year terms for the mayor’s seat and three consecutive four-year terms for a city council seat. Once the term limit was reached, the office holder would have to take a two-year break before running again.

“We need new blood and not new blood in 2034, when the first person would be termed out, presumably,” resident Jason Kishineff told the council.

City Councilmember Mariam Aboudamous, who has championed the term limit idea, disagreed with what was suggested by staff.

“I feel this kind of looks like it’s not term limits; it’s disguised as term limits,” she said.

City Councilmember Pierre Washington articulated why he thought term limits are needed and why even three terms is too long.

“The longer a person stays in office, the more power that person obtains,” he said. “The more power a person obtains, sometimes the focus is lost.”

Term limits will bring some “fresh air” to the council and motivate more people to run for office, he said.

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Joseph said city government doesn’t always move as fast as one might hope. It can take three terms and 12 years to get something major accomplished.

For him, a key is to have a break of a few years once the term limit is reached. He said that helps to eliminate the advantages of the incumbent to get reelected.

“Breaking that cycle, even for two years in my mind, has some benefit,” Joseph said. “Even if you do want to run again, now you’re running as an outsider, and you have to swim upstream.”

City Councilmember David Oro had another view.

“I’m actually not in favor of this at all,” he said. “I don’t think it’s necessary. I think the thing that is necessary is for people to vote with their ballots and change the makeup of the council as needed.”

He pointed to Jill Techel, who was mayor of Napa for 16 years before stepping down last December. Oro said voters kept reelecting her because they liked the job she did and that she oversaw the reinvention of downtown Napa.

“That (kind of) thing takes time and knowledge as well as relationships across the board,” he said.

Then there was the sticky issue of whether term limits should apply retroactively or only going forward. Mayor Leon Garcia has served on the council as either mayor or councilmember since late 2002. Joseph has been on the council since 2010.

One idea is that, if a term limit ballot measure passes, each councilmember should have their present term count toward the limit.

Resident Tammy Wong said that 75% of the city council comes from one part of the city. Places such as the mobile home parks and other neighborhood aren’t represented.

Oro suggested the council look at districts for council seats.

Joseph wasn't sure districts are needed. The city is small and the council is racially diverse and the process of redistricting every 10 years is a big workload item, he said.

“Right now every two years, you get to vote for people,” he said. “If you're mad as heck and you want to term somebody out, you get a shot every two years. Under districting, you get a shot every four years. That’s something I think we have to weigh….”

Washington didn’t want to possibly confuse voters with both the term limit issue and districting issue at the same time. The city should do term limits first and then move on to districts, if it wants to do so, he said.

The council talked about term limits for an hour-and-a-half. A majority of members seem to favor some type of ballot measure. But what type remains to be seen.

Costumed pets and their humans marched in St. Helena's annual Pet Parade on Oct. 16, 2021.

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