Suburbs

This week, Bartlett became the latest municipality in Shelby County to consider term limits for members of its Board of Mayor and Aldermen.

The Bartlett body voted to send a charter change up to Nashville for consideration by the state Legislature. If the measure goes through all the hoops and comes back to the local folks for ratification, then elected officials will be limited to three four-year terms in office, with some alternatives.

Other cities, such as Lakeland and Collierville already have the rules in place. Memphis and Shelby County governments work under the two-term limits, but they — like others — have caveats, such as serving on the County Commission for two consecutive terms, and then running for a county office like assessor or county clerk and starting over on another two-term limit.

Voters and governments have debated term limits for — I don’t know — a heckuva long time. The old argument used to be there were “term limits” — you could just vote out the people who have been in there too long or were ineffective. Limit their time by voting someone else to the position.

But we also know that theory doesn’t always work from longevity and name recognition, to what the elected officials have accomplished, while — perhaps — letting any shortfalls pass.

Then there are those who actually serve with distinction and for a good number of years.

Anyway, governments have started to set limitations on how long elected officials hold office. Gone are the days of suburban mayors serving for “life” or close to it. Or ride “incumbent” to another term.

Well, wait. Under the Bartlett proposal, you can still hold elected office for quite a while. The charter change will allow three four-year terms as an alderman. That’s 12 years. And if voters then elect the alderman to the mayor’s office, they are “limited” to another three terms.

That would be 24 years between the terms.

Alderman Jack Young is the only Bartlett official to exceed 24 years, having been appointed in 1999 and elected to six terms. Young — according to reporter Michael Waddell, who covered Bartlett’s deliberations on the matter — said he doesn’t plan to run for another term.

The three four-year terms per office is similar to Collierville’s limitations. And Bartlett has also discussed the Resign-to-Run rule, where an alderman must resign their seat if they run for mayor — as did happen with last November’s election of Maureen Fraser over Billy Patton for Collierville mayor.

So, while governments are using “term limits” to act like they are turning over elected officials and giving others a chance, those who know how to massage the scenarios, can still be in office a long time. - Suburbs editor Clay Bailey

We hope you enjoy reading the latest news from our suburban reporters. If you’re a Daily Memphian subscriber, we appreciate your support. If not, please sign up for unlimited access to all of our local news coverage.