Four-Year Terms Die In Council Committee
It’s difficult enough trying to hold members of the Charlotte City Council accountable when a majority of them occupy seats sprung from grossly gerrymandered districts that virtually guarantee their re-election every two years.
The task would become all the more insurmountable with a move to four-year terms, a switch some councilmembers have advocated. Fortunately, that notion appears to have died on the vine in committee before having a chance to bloom to fruition if taken before the full council for consideration and a vote.
At its Feb. 25 meeting the council’s Restructuring Government Committee approved a motion to kill recommending to the full council debate and consideration of four-year terms or changes to residency district representation, at least for the time being.
From a recent city manager’s memo to councilmembers:
“Concerns noted during the Committee discussion included, but were not limited to, four-year terms not being a priority of the full Council, not the right time to consider this issue and the need for a community advocate group to move this initiative forward. The Committee will take no further action.”
With Democrats firmly entrenched behind the dais with super-majority control of the council, however, it’s naïve to think a push for four-year terms is completely dead. Look for somebody to break out a political defibrillator at some point and start pumping away until they get a pulse.
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