Along with ranked choice voting, local voters also will decide the fate of two other proposed changes to the county charter:

Proposed Charter Amendment 1 would give the county executive and council members more time in office. It would allow those elected officials to serve up to 12 years (three consecutive terms), up from the current limit of eight years (two consecutive terms).

The proposal also would move elections for council and executive to odd-numbered years. Currently, voters decide those races in even-numbered years.

Proposed Charter Amendment 2 would move elections for county assessor-treasurer, auditor and sheriff to odd-numbered years.

The County Council proposed both measures.

The term-limits proposal has drawn the most attention.

County Councilman Terry Lee, R-Gig Harbor, supports giving council members an extra term. He said the two-term limit puts Pierce County Council members at a disadvantage in regional talks with their colleagues in nearby counties.

There are no term limits for King County Council members; Snohomish County imposes a three-term limit.

Lee said it’s hard to develop the relationships needed to “bring the bacon home” when Pierce County officials are forced out of office after two terms while elected officials in other counties are not.

“It’s unfortunate that’s the way it works,” Lee said. “But that’s the way it works.”

Lee said voters already can limit any public official’s tenure – by voting them out of office.

County Councilman Dick Muri, R-Steilacoom, drafted both amendments.

He described the proposed three-term limit as a compromise between the existing two-term limit and no limit at all.

Muri also proposed charter amendments in 2007 that gave three terms to the county assessor-treasurer, auditor and sheriff. Those amendments, approved by county voters, also made the offices nonpartisan.

Muri said he proposed moving elections for county offices to odd-numbered years to give them greater exposure. He said they get lost in even-numbered years, when state and federal elections get much of the attention.

Tacoma activist Sherry Bockwinkel, who opposes both propositions, said extending term limits is a bad idea.

“Eight years is plenty of time for county councilmen to get their work done,” said Bockwinkel, who wrote the voters pamphlet statement against the proposal.

She also thinks moving elections to odd-numbers years is a flawed idea because there is lower turnout in those elections. That means fewer people would decide who gets elected to county offices.

At least one beneficiary of extending term limits opposes the idea. County Executive Pat McCarthy said it’s self-serving for council members to propose extending term limits.

“It’s just not right for the very body that will benefit from it to propose extending term limits,” she said.

David Wickert: 253-274-7341

david.wickert@thenewstribune.com

blog.thenewstribune.com/politics