City Council votes to lengthen terms

A push to lengthen terms for City Councilors inched forward Wednesday, as the council voted 11-2 to double its term lengths — from two to four years — despite concerns that its effects would further hurt the city’s already dismal voter turnout.

“There’s some good arguments on the other side,” said Pam Wilmot, the executive director of Common Cause Massachusetts. “But elections are where we hold people accountable and four years is a long term. You would have Boston City Councilors serving longer terms than Congress and state legislators.”

Last week, Council President Andrea Campbell filed the home rule petition, similar to one passed through the council in 2016, that later died at the state level. Councilors Michelle Wu (at-large) and Josh Zakim (D-8), were the only opposing votes, as it passed the council again Wednesday. Campbell said the changes would save the city money, improve voter turnout and align council elections with the mayoral race. On Monday, Dion Irish, the city’s commissioner of elections, testified that the longer terms would save the city an estimated $1.6 million per election. Campbell had also proposed to align rules surrounding vacancies from at-large seats with how vacancies are filled for district councilors, through special elections. That portion, however, didn’t advance after government operations committee chairman Michael Flaherty recommended it to be tabled.

“I think these are commonsense reforms that help the body and help get more people involved in the process,” said Councilor Matt O’Malley (D-6), one of 11 members to vote yes.

But Wu and Zakim said expanding term limits would hurt turnout. Wu was also the only councilor to vote no on banning candidates from running for a council seat and the office of the mayor at the same time, which passed 12-1 Wednesday.

“My concern with this initiative is that we would be, under the current campaign finance system, doubling the amount of time and the amount of money that incumbents could add to their war chest and make it more difficult for newcomers to run a feasible campaign,” Wu told the Herald Wednesday. “Also, we would essentially be removing or cutting in half the number of chances for new people to run against incumbents.”

Zakim added that the council should put its focus on other initiatives to help improve voter turnout in municipal elections.

“I think we need to broaden this discussion,” he said. “If we’re talking about expanding turnout, expanding opportunity … we should be talking about the potential to move our municipal elections to even years, if higher turnout is really the goal.”

The proposal has to be approved by the mayor and then at the State House.