Committee holds home-rule petition on mayor, council and school committee term limits for further drafting

The Everett City Council Committee on Legislative Affairs and Elections discussed and voted April 14, 2025, to hold for further drafting a home-rule petition that would amend the city charter to create term limits for the office of mayor, City Council and the school committee.

The petition, as listed in committee materials, proposes changes including limits on consecutive terms and a reset period before a former officeholder may run again. Council members and the public discussion that evening focused on several unresolved questions: whether the mayor should be limited to two or three consecutive terms; whether City Council and school committee members should be limited to five or six consecutive terms (which councilors framed as equivalent to a 12-year cap if council terms remain two years); whether the reset period should be one year or one full mayoral term; and whether appointments and service following special elections should count toward term limits.

Councilor Marchese said he favored a two-term limit to bring in "new blood." Councilor Rogers argued in favor of six consecutive terms for councilors so their maximum service would align with the mayor's 12-year timeline if the mayor is limited to three terms. Council President Martins said he supports term limits generally and stressed the need to stagger council terms so an entire council would not turn over at once.

Committee members noted technical drafting issues in the existing draft language. Council President Martins pointed out an internal inconsistency in Section 2 that referenced a "third" term where the draft otherwise limited the mayor to two consecutive terms; committee members agreed to correct the wording. Members discussed defining "term" to mean a term attained by election to an office (not an acting or interim appointment) and noted a Charter Review Committee suggestion that appointments and special-election service not count against term limits. Several members said they wanted to resolve whether the reset period should be "one year" or "one full term."

A motion was made and seconded to keep the petition in committee for additional wordsmithing and to leave the mayoral limit at two consecutive terms; one separate motion to amend the mayoral limit to three consecutive terms failed on a voice vote. The committee then voted to hold the item in committee for redrafting and clarification. The motion to hold passed by voice vote; exact roll-call tallies were not recorded in committee.

Next steps: the petition will remain in committee for redrafting to clarify term definitions, reset periods, the treatment of appointments and special elections, and staggering of council terms before the committee decides whether to forward a final order to the full City Council.