Politics & Government

Ball Proposes Lengthening Council Term Limits

The bill would ask voters to change the county charter.


Howard County Council member Calvin Ball submitted a bill last week to ask voters to change the county charter to allow council members to serve four four-year terms, rather than the current three four-year terms.

“I think it’s important to have a community conversation on term limits,” said Ball. “Most jurisdictions around the state have no term limits and the few that do have some sort of alignment with the county executive.”

The county executive’s position is limited to two four-year terms. As a result,  County Executive Ken Ulman, who was elected in 2006, will be forced to step down in 2014.

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Currently, all five members of the county council would be forced to step down in 2018, if re-elected in 2014, because they began serving their first terms on the board in 2006. That would likely be during a time when the new county executive would be pursuing a second term and may be forced to work with multiple freshmen council members, if re-elected.

The council term limits were put in place by a charter amendment approved by voters in 1992.

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In Maryland, only three counties have council term limits, according to Ball. Besides Howard, he said the other two counties with term limits—Anne Arundel and Prince George’s—align their terms with the county executive’s.

In 2011, council members Courtney Watson and Greg Fox, along with Ulman, said they supported the current three-term limit, according to The Baltimore Sun. However, The Sun reported that council member Mary Kay Sigaty said she doesn’t favor term limits.

According to the article, Fox—the council’s only Republican—pointed out that the council handled its duties in 2006, despite being made up of all new members.


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