Harrisburg Mayor Eric Papenfuse speaks at the microphone during a recent City Council meeting.
Harrisburg City Council will take more time for discussion as it considers legislation to restrict the city’s mayor to two terms in office.
At a work session tonight, members began debating the ordinance, proposed by council President Wanda Williams. However, they had many questions about how it would work or if it even was a good idea.
“I think we’re trying to put a Band-Aid on the system,” said Councilman Cornelius Johnson.
Johnson repeatedly said he didn’t like Harrisburg’s current, “strong mayor” form of government, suggesting that term limits were an insufficient change to the structure of the system.
Most council members seemed opposed to the ordinance as written. Some said that, if the mayor is term-limited, so should other elected offices, including City Council, the treasurer and the controller.
“I’m in favor of term limits, but it should be across the board,” said Councilwoman Destini Hodges.
Hodges and other council members said that the proposed ordinance left several important questions unanswered, such as the proposed start date for term limits and whether they would apply to the sitting mayor.
Johnson suggested that the city might want to change its form of government entirely, perhaps through the Home Rule charter process supported by Mayor Eric Papenfuse. This process would appoint a commission to consider changes to the how the city governs itself, which, subject to voter approval, could include imposing term limits on elected officials.
Williams has announced her opposition to Home Rule, and, tonight, insisted that term limits could be imposed by ordinance within the current, strong-mayor form of government. She added that she’s not opposed to term limits for other elected offices in the city.
The idea for term limits, she said, has been percolating ever since former Mayor Steve Reed left office after seven terms, leaving financial devastation in his wake.
“This is due to the fact that we had a mayor for 28 years who had power that went unchecked,” she said. “There was no transparency and certainly no accountability.”
Williams said she would not bring up the ordinance for a vote at next week’s legislative session, but would continue the discussion about term limits at a subsequent work session.
Author: Lawrance Binda
