Islamorada council members approved a pair of items which will send questions to the November ballot regarding the number of years a person can serve and staggering terms to avoid having five seats up for election every two years.
At a March 12 meeting, the council unanimously supported the second reading of an ordinance calling for a referendum to revise term limits to eight cumulative years, effective following the 2024 election. Village charter currently allows a council member to serve four consecutive two-year terms, for a total of eight years, before they must step away. The person, however, could run for office after taking a year off and could serve another eight consecutive years, if the majority of the voters give their approval at the polls.
An original proposal brought before the council last November would have asked voters in the November 2024 election if they supported members serving eight cumulative years — and made the change retroactive, meaning those who served previously would have those years counted against them. The council voted 3-2 in favor of the proposal.
Two days later, the council reconsidered the ordinance following concerns that the proposal targeted certain members in the village, barring them from running since they previously served eight years. Councilman Henry Rosenthal asked council members to reconsider the previous vote to send the term limits question to voters. Sure enough, the council voted 3-2 for a reconsideration of the referendum at a meeting in December.
On Dec. 14, the council directed the village attorney to prepare an ordinance to create a ballot question, asking voters if they support a cumulative eight-year term limit for village council members, which would begin after the 2024 village election. The council voted 5-0 on the revised ordinance at the Jan. 9 and March 12 meetings.
Council members followed up by voting 3-2 on an ordinance that calls for a referendum to establish four-year, staggered council terms. All council member seats currently run in the same election every two years. It stemmed from the 2020 election, when all seats were up for grabs with former council members either running for other offices, terming out or choosing not to seek re-election.
Alison Smith, village attorney, said she’s practiced law for 20 years. She told council members that it’s “incredibly uncommon” to have two-year terms.
“Normally it’s four years,” she said.
Four-year council terms aren’t new to Islamorada. In the early 2000s, council members served four-year terms. However, council member terms were reduced to two years following the March 9, 2004 election. The suggestion to reduce terms from four to two years came from a village charter review committee.
Vice Mayor Sharon Mahoney said voters repeatedly turned down four-year terms.
“This has been voted down because people who sat on council who had their own agendas, and we all know this is true. I’m not saying everybody, but there’s been people,” she said. “Four years is a long time.”
Councilman Mark Gregg said four-year terms have distinct advantages and have nothing to do with personalities of the people who are running. Gregg served a four-year term from 2000 to 2004.
“It provides stability in the government that attracts people to work here who are comfortable that they’ll have the same bosses for a lengthy period of time,” Gregg said.
Gregg, Mayor Buddy Pinder and councilwoman Elizabeth Jolin voted in favor of four-year, staggered terms. Mahoney and councilman Henry Rosenthal voted “no.” The ordinance will come back for a second reading at a future meeting.
Per a staff analysis, if voters approve the term changes, three council members would serve four-year terms following the November 2024 election. The three members serving four years would be any person elected through an unopposed election and those receiving the highest number of voters in their respective elections.
Two council members would serve a one-time, two-year term following the 2024 election. Thereafter, the two council members serving under two-year terms would be up for election for a four-year term in the 2026 election.
