By Julia Scott
San Mateo County Times
Posted: 03/06/2010 06:36:56 PM PST
PACIFICA — Residents will vote whether to impose term limits on the City Council this November, the result of an initiative placed on the ballot by two Pacificans who want to shake up local politics.
The San Mateo County Elections Office recently certified the signatures gathered by Bernie Sifry and Deborah Nagle-Burks. On Monday, the City Council will vote to place the measure on the November ballot.
The initiative would prevent someone who has served two consecutive terms on the Pacifica City Council from running again, but it would take effect only after the measure is passed and would not retroactively count the terms already served by council members. If a council member has been appointed to a partial term, that term counts as a full term if the council member has served more than two years. Council members serve four-year terms.
Sifry said introducing term limits would end a tradition of "career politicians" in Pacifica.
"The feeling is that this council has become stagnant. It's run out of ideas. A lot of times they don't want to run, but they'll run to keep somebody off," said Sifry, who is a registered independent voter. "People are looking for new blood, new faces."
Sifry said the initiative would allow a council member who has been termed out to wait four years and then run for the council again "on an equal plane with everyone else," but the language of the ballot measure does not mention this loophole.
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Posted by Steve Sinai
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