Mike Winstead, term limits and the state constitution
In the last minutes of Thursday's seemingly interminable Guilford County commissioners meeting (it lasted five hours), Republican Mike Winstead brought up this unannounced nugget: What about term limits for county commissioners?
Winstead, who's approaching his one-year anniversary on the board, spoke favorably of term limits and asked for the board to discuss them sometime next month. Commissioners can't impose term limits; the board would need to ask the General Assembly to pass a law.
(The two longest-serving commissioners are Republican Steve Arnold (elected in 1990) and Democrat Skip Alston (1992). Commissioners serve four-year terms.)
If Winstead starts pushing for term limits in North Carolina, he's facing a mammoth uphill legal battle with the state constitution as his chief adversary. I asked Bob Joyce, assistant director at the Institute of Government at UNC-Chapel Hill, for his take on Winstead's idea.
"I think that it would be unconstitutional for the General Assembly to impose term limits on county commissioners in North Carolina," he said.
His colleague, local government expert David Lawrence, agrees.
"We think that the state constitution is standing in the way," he said.
Both men referenced a 1992 N.C. Supreme Court decision, Moore v. Knightdale Board of Elections, in which the court struck down a law that required an office holder to resign from that position before filing to run for another office.
For the rest of the story, I'll turn you over to a 2002 letter from Joyce that was prompted by an inquiry from the N.C. School Boards Association. The group was asking about term limits for school board members. Joyce told me the same legal principles apply for county commissioners.
A portion of the letter is found below.
"In light of these constitutional provisions and the Moore decision, you ask for my opinion as to whether the imposition of term limits on school board members amounts to an unconstitutional qualification for office.
"Yes. In my opinion, the imposition of term limits on North Carolina school boards (or the voluntary adoption of term limits by school boards) is unconstitutional.
"Section 6 of Article VI provides that any qualified voter who is 21 years old and is not disqualified by the Constitution itself is eligible for election. The disqualifications are found in Section 8. They are three. The first provides that a person is disqualified if he or she denies 'the being of Almighty God.' This provision is unenforceable under the United States Constitution. The second provides that a person is disqualified if he or she is not qualified to vote for the office. The third provides that a person is disqualified if he or she has been adjudged guilty of certain crimes or corruption, or has been impeached. (Other qualifications for particular offices, not relevant here, are set out in other provisions of the Constitution.)
"The Supreme Court in its Moore decision held, in effect, that this list is an exclusive list,and that no other qualifications for office may be imposed. It characterized the 'resign-to-run' statute as imposing an unconstitutional 'additional qualification for office.' That additional qualification was that a candidate for office could not be a 'holder[] of 'another elective office.' ' 331 N.C. at 12.
"In my opinion, the same reasoning applies to the imposition of term limits on school board members. A school board member who would be barred from running for reelection because he is at the end of the imposed maximum number of terms faces an unconstitutional additional qualification for office. That additional qualification is that a candidate for the office of school board cannot be the holder of that office for the maximum number of allowable terms."