The Courier of Montgomery County reports that officials say that elected City of Montgomery officials could serve lengthened terms ahead that would better deal with the growth in the city.
The council is looking at an extension of the term for mayor and councilmembers to three or four years. The elected officials in office currently would be required to serve their term of two years.
During the October 24th council meeting, Mayor Byron Sanford said there’s a period of “assimilation” that a new candidate goes through.
The mayor said the ideas of extending terms was introduced during a workshop through Councilmember Cheryl Fox. She said that because of the growth the city has undergone its more difficult to accomplish a lot of their work because of the lack of term continuity.
Frustration because of the two-year term limits was also expressed by other councilmembers.
During the council meeting, Councilmember Casey Olsen said basically that half of the council is changed out every year, and that it affects the continuity of the plans and projects they’ve been working on.
Mayor Sanford said discussions are still being held by councilmembers to figure out whether to put extending terms for city officials on the ballot.
