Charlotte City Council is moving toward four-year terms. Should voters get a say?

Charlotte City Council members are angling to extend their terms from two to four years, but voters might get the final say on whether the plan gets a thumbs-up.

On Tuesday, the City Council’s Budget & Effectiveness Committee voted 3-2 to recommend four-year, staggered terms, which would start in 2021. Currently, City Council members and the mayor serve two-year terms, and all seats are up for election every odd year.

“We’d be more effective at representing the community,” said council member LaWana Mayfield, a Democrat, who supports the change. Council members would have more time to settle in and learn about issues without worrying about reelection all the time, and big waves where large numbers of seats change all at once would be avoided.

Ed Driggs and Tariq Bokhari, the lone Republican members on the City Council, voted against extending terms. Democrats Mayfield, Greg Phipps and Dimple Ajmera voted for longer terms.

The issue will now go to the full City Council for further discussion, possibly as soon as next month. The most contentious part of Tuesday’s hearing focused on whether the council should vote to make the change themselves — which they have the power to do — or turn to voters and ask for their support in a referendum.

If the City Council voted to make the change themselves, they would need just a six-member majority to do so. But, with 5,000 signatures, voters could force a referendum on the issue, which might be held in a special election next fall.

“I have a feeling the 5,000 signatures will not be hard to come by,” said Driggs, who predicted backlash against the council’s move could motivate voters against longer terms.

In 2015, Mecklenburg County commissioners asked voters for four-year terms. The answer from the public was a resounding “no,” as the measure failed, gathering just 34 percent of votes in favor. Sixty-six percent of voters were against the idea.

Mayfield said the City Council should vote on the issue themselves, rather than go straight to a referendum. She pointed to past ballot questions, such as the 2001 vote in which residents rejected the uptown arena for the Charlotte Hornets, but the City Council decided to go ahead with the project anyway.

“This community has historically voted against its best interest,” she said. “We have the political ability to do this.”

Council member Braxton Winston, who attended the meeting but is not on the committee, said the City Council should make such calls themselves rather than turn to a referendum.

“We’re an elected government, elected to make tough decisions,” he said.

But Phipps, the chairman, said he’s concerned about a public outcry if they did that. If the City Council voted on its own to institute four-year terms, a 5,000-signature petition could still force a referendum and override council’s decision.

“This is a hot-button issue,” he said. “They (the county) had a four-year referendum on the ballot that went down in flames.”

Driggs criticized Mayfield’s position.

“You’re saying people don’t know what’s good for them,” he said. The committee voted 4-1 to move toward a referendum, with only Mayfield voting against the motion.

The council would attempt to time a referendum to coincide with the 2019 general election in November. Otherwise, the referendum might be held as a special election, which would cost about $500,000 and likely draw extremely low turnout.

The issue has come up off-and-on over the years, with some council members saying the frequent campaigning and bringing new members up to speed every two years makes them less effective. In 2011, the last time the issue was seriously considered, a citizen advisory committee led by former Charlotte mayors Harvey Gantt and Richard Vinroot recommended against switching to four-year terms, saying there hadn’t been any outcry or major problems with the current system.

This story was originally published November 13, 2018 at 12:13 PM.