Judge sides with city in term limits suit

Jurist rules council members can serve two four-year terms, but plaintiffs plan to appeal

Politicians at City Hall can continue serving four-year terms — at least for now — after a state district judge sided with the city of Houston on Friday in a lawsuit seeking to void the November 2015 election in which voters lengthened elected officials’ terms from two to four years.

The plaintiffs, who plan to appeal, allege former Mayor Annise Parker and the City Council misled voters in setting the ballot language for the proposition, which changed the city’s term limits to a maximum of two four-year terms, ending the system of three two-year terms that had been in place since 1991.

Local lawyer and Harris County Department of Education trustee Eric Dick sued, arguing the ballot language obscured the nature of the vote by asking whether voters wanted to “limit the length for all terms,” when, in fact, the change lengthened the maximum term of office from six to eight years. For council members first elected in 2013, the limit is 10 years — one two-year term followed by up to two fouryear terms.

Judge Randy Clapp, a Wharton County jurist appointed to hear the case, granted summary judgment for the city on Friday, repeating phrasing he had

used at a procedural hearing in the case two years ago, saying the city’s chosen language was “inartful” but not “invalid.”

Andy Taylor, a Brenham-based election lawyer and plaintiffs’ attorney in the case, said he plans to appeal. Taylor won a series of victories over Parker’s administration in similar cases, one related to the ballot language of a 2010 vote to impose a drainage fee, another forcing a referendum on Houston’s controversial equal rights ordinance and a third related to the ballot language of that referendum.

“The city tricked voters into thinking they were limiting city service to four years, when in fact they expanded it to eight years,” Taylor said.

Taylor said he is optimistic the appellate justices will agree with his argument that the city sufficiently described only one of what he sees as the measure’s three “chief features,” as precedent requires. As Taylor sees it, the measure clearly said the number of terms would shrink from three to two, but it did not clarify that the length of each term would grow and addressed the transition process between the two approaches using only the word “transition” without further explanation.

Mayor Sylvester Turner, asked about the case in the past, has said he will leave the legal machinations to others and focus on his to-do list.

“The new term limits as adopted by the voters remain in place,” said mayoral spokeswoman Mary Benton.