PTC council declines to invoke term limits for commissions and authorities

By JOHN MUNFORD
jmunford@TheCitizenNews.com

The Peachtree City Council has decided not to formally impose any term limits on the volunteers who serve on the city's various commissions and authorities.

Councilman Dan Tennant had suggested the idea of limiting the members of those entities to two consecutive terms. However, at last week's council meeting, several ideas were mentioned that helped Tennant change his mind.

For example, such a rule could prevent council from re-appointing someone to a seat when no one else has applied, said Mayor Bob Lenox. Also, there could be important projects, such as a recreation bond issue, which could be slowed down so a new member could be trained, said Councilwoman Annie McMenamin.

Lenox said council could informally make a person's length of service a factor it considers when interviewing applicants for its commissions and authorities.

Tennant agreed that implementing term limits could become problematic, but he had come up with the idea to "encourage the maximum amount of participation from the public" and bring in people with fresh ideas.

"Don't get me wrong, I'm grateful to anyone who has served two terms or more," Tennant said, noting that those people are not paid for the time they devote.

City Attorney Rick Lindsey said the city could not legally impose term limits on authority members because the authorities are created by special acts of the state legislature.

Councilman Robert Brooks pointed out that council had discussed the possibility of enacting such term limits before. He said the term limits would allow council to "gracefully" decline to re-appoint a volunteer.

Brooks also noted that the city often gets many qualified applicants for one position.

Instead of making a formal rule to limit the terms of commission or authority members, Lenox said council has the option to appoint whom it wants each time it undertakes the application process.

"We spend a whole lot of time interviewing all the applicants," Lenox said.

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