NorCo Council Introduces Term Limits, Gets Election Report on Successful Primary

At a governance committee meeting last month, Northampton County Council members, particularly Ron Heckman, had a litany of complaints about the gift ban ordinance proposed by Executive Lamont McClure. Heckman wanted a change so he could continue to eat ice cream at statewide county comm'r meetings. Council member Lori Vargo Heffner suggested that change be made before the ordinance was formally introduced at last night's meeting. But County Council is dragging its feet and failed to list the gift ban ordinance. Instead, they introduced changes to the Home Rule Charter that would impose term limits on the Exec, Controller and Council. That matter was only superficially discussed during last month's governance committee. 

There was no discussion concerning the benefits and disadvantages of term limits imposed on locally elected officials.  I fully support term limits for federal and state elected officials, but am leery of it on a local level.  I like the idea of rotating different people in and out of office. But on the county level, it takes several years to learn bureaucratese, the language spoken by Human Services and the Department of Community and Economic Development. This necessarily means that unelected bureaucrats will pretty much have their way with elected officials who simply have no understanding of the lingo.

I also think the ordinances (you can read the relevant sections in my prior post) apply a different standard to him than they do to themselves. It provides that "no person who has held the office of County Executive, or acted as County Executive for more than two years of a term to which some other person was elected County Executive, shall be elected to the office of County Executive more than once."   Shouldn't this same standard apply to everyone?  

Council member Tara Zrinski wondered whether she and John Cusick have a conflict of interest in  allowing voters to decide term limits for the Controller, a position both are seeking. There is no conflict as a matter of law. She or Cusick might benefit or be hurt by term limits, but they are not voting for themselves personally. They are instead voting to allow the voters decide on term limits for the entire class of controllers, present and future, of which they may or may not be a part.  

In other business, Executive Lamont McClure reported on the May 16 primary election. Democrats cast 24,878 votes, with 13,728 coming via mail. Their turnout percentage was 25.97%. Republicans cast 16,972 votes, with only 3.626 coming through the mail. Their turnout percentage was 21.23%

There was a 74% return rate on mail-in ballots. 

Pre-canvassing (the tabulation of mail-in ballots) began at 7 am on Election Day, and was finished by 1:30 pm. 

Unofficial election results were posted by 11:30 pm. Two of the 156 voting precinct forgot to bring back the voting sticks, which delayed the computation. All other precincts were posted by 10 pm. 

Election results were formally certified on May 30, well in advance of the June 5 deadline.

"Our primary election is over," McClure concluded.