In July, the El Paso County Board of County Commissioners voted to put another term-limit question on the 2012 ballot.The 2012 question will ask voters if they want to restore the two-term limit for certain elected officials that was already in place when voters increased the limit to three terms on the 2010 ballot.Since the 2010 election, the commissioners have heard many complaints that the 2010 ballot questions were confusing and misleading because it was not clear the questions actually increased term limits.For example, question 1C, which affected county commissioners, asked the following:”Shall persons elected to the office of County Commissioner be limited to serving three (3) consecutive terms, a modification of the current limits permitted by Article XVIII, Section 11 of the Colorado constitution?”Questions 1B and 1D were worded similarly and referred to the positions of treasurer, clerk and recorder, assessor, surveyor and persons elected to the district attorney’s office for the 4th Judicial District. For all positions, a term is four years.It is unknown how many of the 114,000 people who voted in favor of the three-term limit assumed there were no limits, Duncan said.Commissioner Peggy Littleton said she surveyed Republican groups in El Paso County, expecting to find people who were not confused, who understood what they were voting for and did not want to vote on term limits again.”What I found … is exactly the opposite,” Littleton said.Twenty people attending a Pikes Peak Patriots meeting said they thought they were voting to reduce term limits, while six thought (correctly) they were voting to extend term limits, she said.Of the 23 members of the Pikes Peak Economics Club responding to Littleton’s survey, 13 thought they were voting to reduce term limits and 10 thought (correctly) they were voting to increase the number of terms, Littleton said.All of the eight private citizens who spoke at the BOCC’s July 7 hearing favored a question on the 2011 ballot to clarify voter intent and decide whether commissioners Dennis Hisey and Sallie Clark, who are currently serving second terms, can run in 2012.Speaking for Americans for Prosperity, Sean Paige said the situation is like an open wound.”Failure to act this year will keep this issue percolating away,” Paige said.County coroner Robert Bux and Sheriff Terry Maketa, whose elected positions were not affected by the 2010 ballot questions, spoke against a 2011 ballot question.The $300,000 cost of a 2011 ballot question would be better spent on infrastructure such as the failing heating, ventilation and air conditioning system in the coroner’s office that creates an unsafe work environment, Bux said.”If voters are confused, they’re confused always,” he said. “I think it’s a voter’s responsibility to come up with understanding an election if they’re going to exercise their right to vote.”In addition to opposing a 2011 ballot question because of its cost, Maketa said voting in 2011 would not clarify the intent of 2010 voters because few people vote in off-year elections.Clark said term limits make it harder to get things done.She cited her efforts on a state committee to change the child welfare allocation formula.”I’m the last one left standing on the committee because of term limits,” Clark said. “We’re getting $3.7 million more this year because I’ve been at the table and attend those meetings every single time,” Clark said.Hisey said he’s received fewer comments on the term limit issue than on the board’s decision to open every hearing with a prayer.He responded to criticism that the commissioners’ decision to place the term limit questions on the 2010 ballot was a case of “voting on their own future.””Commissioners actually don’t get to vote on their future,” Hisey said. “Commissioners voted on whether to put this on the ballot so people can vote on their future. That’s what we did a year ago.”On Sept. 2, 2010, the BOCC voted to place the questions on the 2010 ballot by a vote of 4 -1, with commissioners Hisey, Clark, Wayne Williams and Amy Lathen in favor, and commissioner Jim Bensberg opposed.To resolve the current term-limits issue, the board considered ballot language from commissioners Darryl Glenn and Lathen for the county offices of clerk and recorder, surveyor, assessor, commissioner, treasurer and persons elected to the office of the district attorney for the 4th Judicial District.Glenn’s ballot language would have asked voters if they wanted to reduce the existing three-term limit to two terms for the affected offices and would have prevented current holders from serving a third term if voters restored the two-term limit.”The majority of people do not want people grandfathered into this particular position,” Glenn said of the county commissioner position.He also proposed a similar question for the 2011 ballot.Both of Glenn’s motions were defeated 3-2, with Lathen, Hisey and Clark opposed.Lathen’s 2012 ballot language asks the same question as Glenn’s but allows holders of those offices who might run for a third term in 2012 to serve, even if voters restore the two-term limit.The board passed Lathen’s 2012 ballot language by a vote of 4-1, with Glenn opposed.Lathen, who will be running for her second term in 2012, said she has been accused of protecting two commissioners.”I did not make this motion to protect anyone except the rights of the voters,” Lathen said. “All of the members of this board and every county elected official have the ability to run for three terms. That is the law as it stands today.”Voters who want to restore the two-term limit will say “no” to a commissioner running for a third term and tell them they can no longer serve, she said.”All of the members of this board and every county elected official have the ability to run for three terms. That is the law as it stands today,” Lathen said.Voters who want to restore the two-term limit will say no to a commissioner running for a third term and tell them they can no longer serve, she said.At the July 28 board meeting, Glenn asked the board to hear another question for the 2012 ballot that would address the two-versus-three term limit for current county commissioners only.By a vote of 3-1, the board declined to certify Glenn’s new question for the 2012 ballot.Lathen said enough people raised concerns about the 2010 questions for the board to place another question on the 2012 ballot.”We have done exactly what we were asked to do, and it is time to move on in this county,” Lathen said.Is that the end of the term limit issue for now?Glenn said he would bring the subject up again if Littleton (who was not present for the July 28 vote) wants to be on record with where she stands on the issue.”I have the feeling we’re going to debate the merits of term limits as we go into 2012,” Clark said.
