Grapevine voters will decide May 11 whether the terms of the mayor and City Council should be limited.

The council unanimously approved the ballot item, which would require a charter amendment, Tuesday at its regular meeting.

A bipartisan group last fall gathered enough petition signatures to have the item placed on the ballot.

The petition was submitted by unsuccessful council candidate Kathleen Thompson, who was defeated by incumbent Roy Stewart in May 2011. Later, Thompson, a Democrat, was approached by Julie McCarty of the NE Tarrant Tea Party about term limits.

They attracted enough supporters to get the signatures needed to get the item on the ballot.

Mayor William D. Tate was elected to the council in 1972, and except for a term off from 1985 to 1988, has been mayor since 1973.

The average tenure on the council is 18.5 years.

Councilwoman Darlene Freed, whose term expires this year, has served since 1998. Shane Wilbanks and Sharron Spencer have been on the council since 1985.

If the amendment is approved, current members could be elected to serve three more consecutive three-year terms; an elected official could serve three terms on the council plus three more, consecutively as mayor (or vice versa); and elected officials could serve unlimited terms of three years each with a year off in between.