MANDEVILLE – The St. Tammany Parish Council will consider a measure at its Thursday night meeting that would allow parish voters to decide whether term limits is to be instituted for Parish Council members.
The St. Tammany council has rejected for years allowing residents to decide the matter and has consistently voted down any recommendations that would put the decision in the hands of the voters.
It was a little over two months ago when the council concluded a review of the Home Rule Charter and turned down suggestions that would allow the public to vote on term limits.
But after continual pressure from the public, the Parish Council brought the matter back at its August meeting, and accepted consideration of the vote again, which will be decided at the meeting this Thursday night, Sept. 3. The meeting will begin at 6 p.m. in the Parish Council Chambers at the Parish Administrative offices on Koop Drive.
Councilmen Gene Bellisario and Marty Dean, both who voted in June against allowing the public to vote on the matter, will co-sponsor an ordinance at the meeting that calls for a three-term limit to be placed on the ballot in the form of a proposed charter change.
Approval of the resolution will require 10 of the 14 council members supporting it, and if it is put before the voters, it would not affect current sitting council members. The measure would begin with the council that is seated in 2020.
It is too late to get the measure on the ballot this year and would come before the voters at the first opportunity in 2016.