In Arlington, term limit committee prepares for discussion as some question ‘urgency’
As an Arlington committee gears up to explore alternative term limits options and draft recommendations for the city council’s consideration, some are still questioning why — and why so quickly.
The 24-member Term Limits Advisory Committee will meet for the first time Thursday, July 16, in what Committee Chair Chad Bates described as an “open forum” followed by committee discussion. The other meetings are set for July 21 and July 28, with hopes of delivering recommendations on alternative term limits by early August.
“It’ll be kind of an intensive couple of weeks, but an important couple of weeks,” Bates said.
But some, however, have criticized the pace of the meeting, coupled with the committee’s existence. In their comments at previous city council meetings, speakers have questioned the council’s integrity after it voted 7-2 to create the committee earlier in the month.
Marvin Sutton, District 3 councilman, said the council did not seek an advisory committee in 2005, when voters rejected a proposal to lengthen council members’ term limits to three years. He questioned why now.
“This meeting has an urgency, and I don’t know why it has an urgency,” he said.
Sutton, along with Dr. Barbara Odom-Wesley, are the only two council members to vote against forming the committee. Sutton also helped rally petition signatures to put term limits on the 2018 ballot.
Committee member Andy Prior said on Facebook he questioned the dates presented to him and his colleagues.
“If we rush this committee so fast that people don’t really have the chance to share their views on local government, I think we’ve missed an opportunity,” he said. “That would be a shame.”
Prior said he will try to generate public input about the three two-year terms that currently limit council members and mayors. As it stands, city council members can serve 12 years maximum — six years on city council, six years as mayor. He worried the timeline would keep people from receiving the opportunity to speak up.
“I don’t think it matters whether we have the strictest term limits or no term limits at all if we don’t have citizens engaged in Arlington,” Prior said.
Alexa Aragonez, senior management analyst for the city, said in an email the council wished to “expeditiously review, discuss and formulate a recommendation” for council members.
Mayor Jeff Williams first proposed a committee to explore term limits in October 2018. He and other council members contended that voters needed more options than some of the most restrictive term limits in the country. Aragonez said the council reviewed applications filed between October 2018 and July.
Under the resolution creating the committee, members cannot recommend eliminating term limits altogether.
Council members filled the majority of committee seats at their July 7 meeting. A seat remained open after the council rejected 5-3 the appointment of Zachary Maxwell, an outspoken advocate for term limits and publisher of the Arlington Voice, after representatives said they feared his “lack of decorum” would dissuade others from participating.
“I don’t think that I could knowingly subject that committee to his oftentimes lack of decorum and anger,” said Sheri Capehart, District 2 councilwoman, at the meeting.
Sutton, who nominated Maxwell, offered up Ray Whitworth at Wednesday’s special council meeting. However, he said he considered Maxwell’s rejection a “lifetime ban,” when other committee appointees have similarly rustled feathers.
“There’s some appointees on there that I’m not fond of that’ve made some condescending statements,” Sutton said. “I’m OK with that as long as they add value to the discussion.”
Sutton also hoped the committee would approach its July meetings with an “open and transparent” mindset. He raised concerns about Bates’ participation in We Love Arlington, a PAC that opposed the November 2018 term limits proposal. Bates’ company, Legacy Financial, donated over $3,000 to the PAC, according to The Texas Ethics Commission.
Bates said he and other PAC donors pooled resources against the initiative because they felt the community was not given enough chance to weigh alternatives and consequences of the vote.
“I simply felt like the language that is now in our city council charter is too restrictive and we had not had a chance to discuss that as a community,” he said.
Jim Maibach, another committee member, donated $250 to the PAC and has donated over $3,000 to various campaigns over the last two years. Maibach said the conversation is necessary to come up with a compromise.
“In my opinion, you always get a say in Arlington of what that balance can or should be,” he said.
The Term Limits Advisory Committee can be viewed online or on public cable at 6:30 p.m. Thursday. Those interested in submitting comments can email tlacpublicparticipation@arlingtontx.gov.
This story was originally published July 15, 2020 at 6:30 PM.
