Voters To Decide Council Terms
BETHEL HEIGHTS HOLDING SPECIAL ELECTIONS FOR SIX POSITIONS
Posted: November 25, 2009 at 6:07 a.m.
The 2010 elections could be the last time all of Bethel Heights’ council seats are simultaneously up for grabs.
Bethel Heights voters will decide in a Dec. 8 special election whether to increase council term lengths and stagger the terms.
The council has two positions for each of the city’s three wards.
If the measure is approved, the city’s three Position 1 council members elected in the 2010 election would serve four years and the three Position 2 members would serve for two years, Mayor Fred Jack said.
The Position 2 members would be elected to fouryear terms in 2012, creating staggered terms, Jack said.
Jack and some council members said it’s important to have staggered terms.
If all the council members decided not to run or all were defeated, the city could have a council with no experience, said Alderman Sam Black.
Jack said turnover hasn’t been much of a problem. He could remember only one contested council race in more than 10 years.
Still, it doesn’t hurt to take precautions, he said.
“We just got to thinking, you know, it could be a catastrophe if everybody was replaced all at once,” he said.
Alderwoman Debra Cheval said she doesn’t know why more people don’t run for council.
“I don’t know if it’s just small-town government,” she said. “It would be nice to get more people involved, but it seems to be a chore for people to do that.”
Black said he doesn’t think increasing term lengths would affect the number of people who run for oft ce in the city.
Jack said he wasn’t sure what effect the changes may have.
Longer terms might scare off some potential candidates, he said.
But longer terms also mean less frequent campaigning, which may be a bonus for some candidates, he said.
“It’s a toss of the coin, I suppose,” he said. “I hope it doesn’t make anything worse.”
Jack said he has not heard any opposition to the measure.
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