Harrisburg Mayor Eric Papenfuse (left) confers with members of his staff following last night’s City Council meeting.
Former Harrisburg Mayor Steve Reed served seven full terms, leaving financial devastation in his wake when he finally left office after 28 years.
City Council President Wanda Williams says she now wants to prevent a future mayor from staying in office too long, accumulating too much power and thus endangering the welfare of the city. So, she introduced an ordinance last night that would limit future Harrisburg mayors to two terms.
“I don’t want that to happen again,” she said following the council meeting. “It’s not fair to residents or to City Council.”
The ordinance further would prohibit anyone who has served more than two years of a partial term from serving more than a single full term.
Mayor Eric Papenfuse said that, in general, he supports term limits for officeholders and might even consider them as part of a new Home Rule charter. However, he does not support this proposal because, he said, one branch of government cannot use term limits “to control” another.
“I think it’s unconstitutional as currently written,” he said.
In contrast, he said he might support a proposal that subjects all municipally elected officials to term limits.
Williams said that she might go for that.
“If he wants to consider council members, that’s fine with me, too,” said Williams, who, with 12 years on council, is the longest-serving elected official in the city government.
She emphasized that this proposal is not a dig at Papenfuse, who, in May, was nominated for a second term as mayor.
“If it had been (former) Mayor (Linda) Thompson, I would have considered it too,” said Williams, who placed the ordinance into the administration committee, which she chairs, for further discussion.
Williams took pains last night not to be too critical of Reed. However, the language of the ordinance plainly states that his longevity in office and consolidation of power created “a longtime imbalance of power between the legislative and executive branches of city government.” The proposed ordinance further asserts:
“The council of the city of Harrisburg hereby recognizes that this historical imbalance of power arose in part from the unchecked exercise of power by a prior mayor who, by serving seven consecutive terms of office, amassed extraordinary powers over governmental and non-governmental affairs within the city.”
In the end, it seems that Papenfuse and Williams may have grounds for a possible compromise.
“I’m not sure if it should be two or three terms,” Papenfuse said. “But I think there’s a benefit to term limits.”
Author: Lawrance Binda
