Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa on Friday signed a measure officially placing a term limit extension for City Council members on the November ballot.
Villaraigosa signed the measure supported heavily by the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce late Friday afternoon despite concerns from City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo that it might not pass legal muster.
The ballot measure contains both a term limit extension from the current two terms to three terms and a series of ethics reform measures, including limits on lobbyists’ campaign activities. Delgadillo said it may not be legal to combine these two components on a single ballot measure and had publicly urged Villaraigosa to veto it.
But in a statement issued late Friday, Villaraigosa said, “The question of extending term limits belongs rightly with the voters.”
This latest push to change term limits originated with the chamber and the League of Women Voters, which argued that the current two-term limits forced councilmembers into perpetual campaign mode and greatly increased the power of the city bureaucracy.