By Gail Binkly

The question of whether term limits should be rescinded for some local offices may appear on the ballot this fall for the second year in a row.

Local leaders from both major political parties came before the Montezuma County commissioners Monday seeking to have such a proposal placed on the November ballot.

In 1998, at the urging of the Democratic and Republican parties, the county commissioners put a question on the ballot that would have exempted all county elected officials except the district attorney from the current two-term limit imposed by state voters on all state and local elected officials in 1994. The question failed by a margin of 57 to 43 percent.

This time, however, the proposal may not involve all the same officials. Instead, it may exclude the county commissioners and include some other elected persons, such as members of area school boards.

“Our rationale is that, at the local level, some of the offices that are being held are definitely not policy-making offices, such as the assessor, treasurer and county clerk,” said local Democratic Party chairman Tony Valdez, “and that a change of personnel — well, sometimes it’s hard to get a new person in and train them.”

Valdez also said that he believes term limits in general are unfair to voters because they restrict their choices.

“It’s an infringement on the voters’ rights, really,” he said, “because, if you want to keep somebody, you can’t. If you don’t want them, you can vote them out.

“If a majority votes for somebody again and again, there must be something good about them because a majority keeps putting them in there.”

But even if voters like the concept of term limits overall, there are some offices that shouldn’t be subject to them, Valdez maintained.

“So many little offices got caught up in this thing that shouldn’t have been,” he said, citing entities such as special-district and school boards which often have difficulty finding enough people to serve on them.

“That’s scaring us, the school boards,” Valdez said. “Last time they couldn’t even get write-ins.” In fall of 1997, three seats were open on the Re-1 board, and only one race was contested.

Local Republican chairman Todd Starr concurred.

“One of the most important offices a person can hold is on the school board and it’s one of the hardest to get people to pay attention to,” he said.

“I don’t think term limits are a problem with the school boards,” agreed Commissioner Gene Story.

However, Story — who voted against placing the term-limit question on the ballot last year — reiterated that he believes the voters have made their sentiments clear on the issue.

“The local voters have said twice, overwhelmingly, that they want term limits,” Story said. “They voted for the state question (to impose limits) and then against the local proposal last year.”

Because Commissioner Kent Lindsay, who voted for placing the proposal on the ballot last year along with Kelly Wilson, was absent Monday, Story advised Starr and Valdez to draft a proposed question and bring it to the board at its next regular meeting Sept. 13.

Both Valdez and Starr expressed hope that voters might pass such a proposal this time if it included officials such as the treasurer, clerk, assessor, coroner, and school-board members but did not include the county commissioners.

“What about the sheriff?” asked Wilson. “Oh, well, that’s usually a one-term deal anyway,” he added jokingly. It has been a number of years since a sheriff in Montezuma County was elected to a second term; many do not even run twice.

In other business Monday:

The commissioners said they will provide $1,000 so long as it can be taken from lottery funds, which are earmarked for recreation and similar purposes.