Arlington residents to vote on city council term limits in November

ARLINGTON, Texas - Most of the Arlington City Council members made it very clear Monday night that they're angry over a citizen-led initiative that forced them to put term limits for council members on the November ballot.

Monday’s meeting saw council members speaking their mind and going on the record against the term limits proposal. They made it clear they did what they did only because they had to.

The city council members made it clear they're against term limits and will join together at the polls to fight it come November.

Despite that, council members were legally compelled to approve the second and final reading on a term limits proposal that would see five council members lose their seat over the next year and a half.

Sunday night when council was supposed to approve a reading of its own term limits plan that would allow sitting council members to serve at least nine more years, they decided instead to drop it.

Council chambers was packed. Public comments took a harsh tone against the council's legal maneuvering.

“I'm disgusted as a citizen in this city at the animosity on both sides of this issue,” said citizen Robert Harris.

“It makes it more obvious to us that y'all are not really that concerned with following the rules,” said citizen Chris Dobson.

This time though, there were far less people in attendance and nearly all the speakers praised the council.

“You have taken that tradition of winning and you've taken it to a whole new level,” said citizen Clay Kelley. “All you have to do is look around at the redevelopment that's going on in this city."

"They recognize that you are doing a great job at having economic growth coming to our city,” said citizen John Hibbs. “It's not the time to dampen that."

Zack Maxwell led the effort to collect 11,000 signatures that forced the city council take action and put the term limits proposal on the November ballot.

"I just wanted to thank you for allowing this proposition to go to the ballot alone,” he said. “That's all we ever really wanted at the end of the day."