The council on Feb. 9 sent city staff direction to return with a council-supported initiative that would impose a three-consecutive-term limit for council members. Each term runs four years.
Mayor Holly Sierra said she proposed term limits for council discussion after hearing from many residents that the issue was important.
“I think we’ve been so lucky. When Russ (Hicks) passed, we had wonderful turnout to fill his vacancy,” she said. “And when John (Connolly) stepped away, we had seven people step up. We’ve been so fortunate with the community getting involved, and I think everybody should have the opportunity to serve on council. It’s a real eye-opener and it feels good to be able to make a difference.”
For council member Judith Dale, term limits are a “double-edged” sword because they sometimes create a scenario where public officials do not really have enough time to learn the ropes, or one where they’ve become entrenched and hold power through political alliances.
For Dale, the third term is a charm. “If you can’t get it done in 12 years, you probably don’t belong in the council,” she said. “When people are entrenched on the council, alliances are formed, people get complacent and too backward-looking and things get so stagnated that no progress is made.”
Sierra echoed the sentiment. She noted that because California has term limits of three two-year terms in a lifetime for state assembly representatives, “they spend most of their time running for re-election instead of doing business in Sacramento.”
“I don’t think that’s what we want to do here,” she said.
Although the proposed term-limit initiative would preclude council members from appearing on the ballot for a fourth term, there would be one caveat encouraged by Dale. “It could happen that terms for three people on the council are up,” Dale noted. “You wouldn’t want to totally annihilate your council and the leadership.”
Dale said she was just as concerned about perennial power as she was about losing some continuity on the council. Therefore, the proposed initiative would provide that a member who is termed out can return if re-elected later.
Some choices up for consideration include the number of terms that may be served, whether term limits imposed apply only to consecutive terms or act as a lifetime limitation, and whether individuals appointed to fill vacancies count their partial terms as part of their full terms.
City Attorney Ralph Hanson said the council must develop the ordinance on term limits, and then adopt a resolution putting the issue to voters on the November ballot. But the resolution must be ratified by June, because the city must consolidate its election data with the county and send it off to the state.
Should term limits be imposed, they would start with council members who take office in 2014. The seats now held by Ed Andrisek, Connolly and Dale will be up that year. In other city news, the council presented a proclamation recognizing Santa Barbara County winemaker Richard Sanford for his upcoming induction into the Vintners Hall of Fame.
Sanford and his wife, Thekla, received the award from Sierra and in front of a packed house that came out in support of the duo, founding Sanford Winery in 1981 and for 20 years making “some of the Central Coast’s finest pinot noir and chardonnay,” according to the proclamation. In 2005, they founded Alma Rosa Winery & Vineyards.
Sanford is the first Central Coast resident ever named to the California Vintners Hall of Fame. This year’s inductees are recognized as leaders who have helped California become the center of the American wine industry. On Monday, Feb. 20, Sanford will be honored at the Culinary Institute of America at Greystone Cellars, in St. Helena, as part of the college’s sixth annual Vintners Hall of Fame celebration.
Sanford recalled that as an 8-year-old, his family first brought him to Buellton during a stop-in between Los Angeles to San Francisco in a Studebaker. “I ate all my pea soup,” he said with a chuckle. “And I always remember the crisp air.”
“To think, 20 years later I’d come to make this my home,” he said. “It’s a marvelous discovery and it continues to be a discovery, and, with the winemakers we have here, the best is yet to come.”