Suburbs

This week, Bartlett became the latest suburb in Shelby County to enact term limits for its elected officials, an approach that continues to grow in local elections.

The action by the Board of Mayor and Aldermen limits the positions of mayor and alderman to three four-year terms. If you term-out of one of the offices, you can start another 12-year run in the other. Alderman to mayor or mayor to alderman.

That can mean a good long stretch if you reach the maximum in each office.

Of course, there’s the old adage that every elected official has “term limits.” If voters aren’t happy with their representation or think they have been in too long, they can just vote out the incumbent.

That sounds logical, but, in reality, most times the person in office has a head start on reelection. Name recognition being a major advantage.

Arlington, Germantown and Millington still follow that approach with no term limits on their books. No stopping at two or three terms. No questions regarding whether partial terms — where the official is appointed to a vacancy — apply to the maximum time in office.

From there, things can get a bit less consistent. Bartlett and Collierville limit their elected offices to three four-year terms and partial terms don’t count.

Lakeland limits their elected officials to a pair of four-year terms, no matter the office. So, a person can serve a four-year term as commissioner and then have one term left if they want to run for mayor.

And to be clear, in all cases the same rules apply for the mayor’s office and the legislative seats, like alderman and commissioner.

Memphis and Shelby County government also have a limit of two consecutive four-year terms to elected office, such as county commissioner or city council member, plus the mayor’s office.

Ahh, but things can get a little dicey in county government. Reach your max as a county commissioner, go run for another elected office, like county clerk or assessor.

Then there is the resign-to-run rule, something that was part of Bartlett’s new policy, but was already in place for Collierville. That calls for a candidate to vacate their current elected office before they can run for another municipal post.

I kind of like that provision. If you want to run for another office, commit to it. Put everything behind it. Don’t have a fall back position to where you can lose an election but still be in office.

That seems like the noble thing to do. - Suburbs editor Clay Bailey

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