At Tuesday's Colleyville City Council meeting, council members voted to send 5 city charter amendments to the Nov. 8 election ballot. One of the most discussed amendments at the council meeting was Proposition 1, which states no person shall serve as mayor for more than two consecutive elected terms, and no person shall serve as a council member for more than two consecutive elected terms.
It also states that under no circumstances may any person ever serve for more than 12 consecutive years in combination as a council member or mayor.
The amendment will be effective at the next municipal election and shall apply to all persons currently occupying the office of mayor or council member. Council Member Mike Taylor said he does not see a need for this proposition. "Why do we even need to do it?" he said. "[In your document] it says nothing about where's the need—the need being do we have a problem. And the perception could be that there's a problem, but when you go back over the history—we have a spreadsheet of every elected office and who held it and for how many terms—that was apparently not considered or put in there as a reason why you might not need term limits. I would probably say you could destroy the argument for term limits if you look at the May 2016 election." In the May 2016 election all three incumbents that were up for re-election lost by more than 60 percent. Mayor Pro Tem Chris Putnam said he thinks it is time to have term limits. "It's never a coincidence that people who have been in public office for a very long time like Council Member Taylor have a problem with term limits," he said. "Only people who don't understand the unfair advantage of an incumbency, or politicians themselves, have a problem with term limits. This is long overdue in Colleyville. This thing is going to pass overwhelmingly and I don't think it's even going to be close." Other amendments to the city charter include having the appointments of the police chief, fire chief, public works director and city secretary approved by City Council. It also calls for amendments to the personal financial interest subsection of the charter and adding language to allow electronic voting for city council meetings. Council members Taylor and Jody Short voted not to accept the recommendations on term limits.