As Frankfort Mayor Jim Holland seeks his fourth term in the April 4 election, his opponent, former village trustee Todd Morgan is calling for term limits.
Morgan brought a proposed resolution to the village’s Land Use and Policy Committee meeting Wednesday night, in an effort to place a binding referendum on the April 4 ballot, limiting the mayor to two consecutive four-year terms.
Morgan said his resolution was a sample and that the wording could be changed to apply to all elected officials, or extended to three terms.
But most committee members were reluctant to rush this issue, which required that a resolution be passed by Tuesday to get the referendum on the April ballot.
According to village attorney Sean Brady whether the issue was put to a vote in the April 4, 2017 consolidated election, or in November 2018 general election, term limits could not go into effect until the April 2019 election, he said. If the referendum fails, the village has to wait 23 months to try again
He recommended that they “put time and thought into it and do it right.”
Morgan said he did not expect the village to vote by Tuesday’s deadline, but wanted to get their opinions and start a discussion about it, and planned to make it a campaign issue.
He said he meant “no disrespect” to the current mayor and trustees, but said this is to “protect” the village in the future.
Term limits would eliminate concerns about favoritism, pandering to certain groups and raising campaign funds, Morgan said.
“You serve for two or three terms, do it for benefit of community and move forward,” he said.
The committee did not reject the idea, nor move it forward, with a few members saying they wanted to get community input first.
Stacy Bond, a citizen member of the committee, said he “generally” likes term limits, but thinks it is “complicated.”
“I watch you guys all the time. It’s a hard job. You are not going to get a lot of people to come out and do these jobs and spend the time on them that is being spent.”
“Why does this make sense and why does this make sense for Frankfort?” he said.
Village Trustee Bob Kennedy said term limits make sense if a community has ineffective, irresponsible government, but he is not sold on term limits at the local level.
Trustee Mike Stevens also said it made no sense at the local level, and asked Morgan why he never considered term limits during his 14 years as a village trustee.
“We are a small town. We are volunteers,” said Trustee Dick Trevarthan, who has served 30 years on the board and is running for re-election. “At this time we do not need term limits. We have a good core of volunteers. We need continuity.”
“If you want me off the board, vote me off,” he said.
Trustee Keith Ogle said he wanted the public to weigh in on this “important” issue, not political candidates.
Holland did not comment during the committee meeting, but afterwards said term limits would restrict voters’ choices, and that “is a very serious issue.”
He said such a referendum “should come from the people.”
State law provides that citizens can petition a government to put an issue on the ballot, or a board can do it by resolution.
