Grapevine spring ballot also includes positions on council

Grapevine voters will decide next month whether to establish term limits for the mayor and city council members, a move that could end a pattern of lengthy service that has defined this city for many years.

Term limits would be established if a charter amendment is approved in the May 11 municipal election. The City Council called the charter election in February in response to a petition drive that gathered enough valid signatures to put term limits on the ballot.

Term limits have become a thorny issue in Grapevine, where the average length of service on the council is 18.5 years. The longest serving is Mayor William D. Tate, who was elected to the council in 1972 and has served as mayor since 1973, with the exception of a term off from 1985 to 1988.

Council members Shane Wilbanks and Sharron Spencer have served since 1985; Roy Stewart has served since 1996; Darlene Freed has served since 1998; Chris Coy has served since 2008; and Mike Lease has served since 2007.

Opponents of term limits say Grapevine already has term limits, and that is the democratic process.

"If voters don't want us, they are free to vote for someone else," Spencer said.

But supporters of term limits say that curtailing length of service allows new people and fresh ideas to be represented on the council.

"A challenger is always at a disadvantage against an incumbent in an election," said Kathleen Thompson, who helped create the grass-roots organization Better Grapevine to collect signatures for the charter amendment petition. She said she has had a longtime interest in seeing term limits put into effect.

Thompson ran unsuccessfuly for the council against Stewart in May 2011.

After Thompson's defeat, she was approached by Julie McCarty, president of the Northeast Tarrant Tea Party, to join forces in advocating for term limits in Grapevine.

"We stand for conservative values," said Cory Huddleston, president of Focus Grapevine, an arm of the Northeast Tarrant Tea Party that was created to support term limits. "But we also support community involvement and term limits is a way to accomplish that.

"We love what the council has accomplished in Grapevine but we feel that it is time to bring in fresh ideas so the city can continue to grow and prosper," Huddleston said.

Term limits advocates said they have already seen enthusiastic support for their cause. The petition drive collected about 2,000 signatures although only about 1,400 were needed to put the issue on the ballot, Thompson said.

In Texas

Term limits have been embraced by some cities in Texas but bypassed by others. Texas has about 1,200 cities but only 350 are home rule cities — with populations of at least 5,000 and a city charter — and are eligible to adopt term limits, according to the Texas Municipal League.

A Texas Municipal League survey found that about 140 of the 350 home rule cities, approximately 41 percent, had term limits in 2008, the last time this information was reported.

Various cities have adopted different lengths of service, varying from four to nine years, but six years is the most common, said Bennett Sandlin, executive director of the Texas Municipal League.

"Although the trend is strong for adopting term limits, Port Neches in 1983 and Sachse in 1990 adopted charter amendments rescinding the term limits then in existence in their charters," Sandlin said.

Thompson said term limit supporters looked at the charters in cities in Tarrant, Dallas, Collin and Denton counties before deciding to include language in the petition that would allow council members to serve three consecutive three-year terms, then take a year off before running for election again. In addition, council members could serve three terms and three more consecutively as mayor (or vice versa).

'Blatant mistrust'

Tate said term limits are appropriate for the U.S. president but not for local government.

"Term limits show a blatant mistrust of the power of the people to elect the best qualified people to office," he said. "Term limits bring about constant change.

"Continuity is the one thing that has been the foundation of Grapevine's success," Tate said. "Our citizens want to build on those successes, not undermine them."

But Thompson said Grapevine's continued success does not hinge on "these seven people staying in office."

"Grapevine is full of smart, articulate, successful people who are equally dedicated to our city's success," she said.

Spencer said council members should not be penalized for doing a good job.

"We don't tell teachers, dentists, mechanics or plumbers that we love their work but they have to go after nine years," Spencer said. "So why do we want to tell someone on the council that they can only do their job for nine years? It's foolhardy."

Modified 4/18/13: This story has been modified to say Kathleen Thompson has had a longtime interest in term limits.

IF APPROVED

If the city charter amendment were approved, current members of the council could be each re-elected to serve three more consecutive terms; an elected official could serve three terms as a council member and three more, consecutively, as mayor (or vice versa); an elected official could serve unlimited terms as long as it was in three-term sets with a year off in between.

Area cities that have term limits include Southlake, Bedford, Trophy Club, Lewisville, and Denton.

Colleyville and Westlake do not have term limits.