Dick Spotswood: 12-year term limits make sense for all Marin elected offices

In elected legislatures at the city, state or federal level, the “dean” is the member who has served for the longest continuous period. In the U.S. House of Representatives, the honorary title of dean is awarded to the longest serving member of either party.

Being the dean is both an achievement and a sign that it’s time to recognize that all good things must end. The enactment of term limits for Marin elected offices for county, municipal and special purpose district posts may be a productive reform.

The “dean” of Marin’s 55 mayors and council members is Novato’s seven-term Pat Eklund. She’s been in office for 29 years, having first been elected in 1995. The runner-up for dean of council members is Tiburon’s Alice Fredericks. She’s in her sixth council term having served for 24 years. First elected in 2001, she’ll have been in this unpaid elected office for a quarter of a century when her current term expires in 2026.

Among Marin’s 15 independent elementary and high school districts, 45 men and women currently sit on school boards. Their undisputed dean is Lagunitas School Board Trustee Richard Sloan of Woodacre. This year, the 89-year-old Sloan will have completed a record-breaking 54 years as a trustee.

The IJ reported, “Except for a short hiatus in the 1980s — when he (Sloan) ran a brief but contentious, uproarious and unsuccessful campaign for Tamalpais Union High School District trustee — he has served continuously on the school board since 1971.”

The tenure of the seven members of the Marin Community College Board tends to be measured in decades. Its dean is San Rafael’s Wanden Treanor, who was first elected in 1996. When her current term ends in 2026, she’ll have been a trustee for 30 years.

Due to term limits, there isn’t a dean in California’s state Legislature. The lifetime limit of service is 12 years. The tenure may be done in the state Senate, the state Assembly or a combination, but under no circumstance can it be for longer than 12 years.

No Marin school board, city council, special purpose district or the county’s Board of Supervisors is subject to formal term limits. Mill Valley and Belvedere have informal limits. Mill Valley’s absolute cap is three four-year terms. It’s enforced by community consensus. Likewise, Belvedere has a two-term council tradition.

 

Term limits are popular. The latest poll conducted by Mill Valley’s Mark DiCamillo, director of the University of California, Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies poll, surveyed 5,095 California voters who were told that California local governments rarely limit how long public officials can hold office.

DiCamillo summarized that “the poll finds strong bipartisan support to change this, with about three quarters of voters statewide in favor of setting term limits for county supervisors (77%), district attorneys (77%), and county sheriffs (73%).”

I’d suggest that if a 12-year cap is good enough for state legislators, it should be the standard that’s applied across the board.

The benefits of enacting term limits from U.S. presidents to water district directors includes a regular infusion of new ideas and fresh approaches toward long-standing problems. The “we’ve always done it that way” syndrome needs to be buried.

Limits on political terms also provide a subtle nudge to urge veteran office holders to depart with all flags flying and avoid humiliating defeat at the hands of voters who believe they’ve overstayed their welcome. The most difficult decision in elected politics is knowing when to leave.

The resulting loss of collective memory from conscientious veteran officials is a real term limit defect. Yet, the positives of term limits outweigh their negatives. The reality is if any elected official can’t accomplish their stated goals within 12 years, they never will.

Columnist Dick Spotswood of Mill Valley writes on local issues Sundays and Wednesdays. Email him at spotswood@comcast.net.