According to City Manager Ray Griffin, the Henderson City Council approved an action plan during its last planning retreat to amend the time frame in which the mayor and members of the city council are elected.
Griffin briefed council members during Monday’s regular meeting of the council.
Currently, the mayor and all members are elected every two years in elections that are held on odd-numbered years, the only years in which a municipality in North Carolina may hold elections by state law. The system entails the possibility that the mayor and all eight members of the council could be replaced in a single election with members who have never served on the city council before.
Some have argued that the potential for discontinuity on the council is a problem.
To put staggered terms into effect, four council members will run for four year terms in the 2011 election while the other four will stand for two year terms.
According to the charter amendment, at-large seats for Wards 1 and 2 and the ward seats for Wards 3 and 4 would be elected for two year terms, with the balance of seats, including the office of mayor, would be elected for four-year terms.
Because council members cannot be elected for less than two years, and because elections can only be held during odd-numbered years, the terms must be increased to four years in order to stagger council members’ terms.
In all subsequent elections, members would run for four-year terms, beginning with the 2013 municipal election.
During a public hearing on the amendment that preceding the council vote, former council candidate Lewis Edwards argued against the change. He said that the length of the term would dissuade candidates from running.
No one else spoke for or against the amendment.
The amendment passed without opposition. It must be approved by the Department of Justice before it takes effect on January 1, 2011.