Lakewood City Council will delay voting on any clarifying language regarding term limits in the city’s charter, but any changes will not affect Councilwoman Ramey Johnson’s ability to run in November.
The council discussed the matter during a study session Feb. 6 as a follow-up to a that featured talk of lawsuits and Johnson accusing Mayor Adam Paul and city attorney Tim Cox of having a political agenda against her.
Early in the Feb. 6 discussion, Cox asked the council for guidance on how to clarify the charter — which states that a person who serves “at least a two-year term” will be considered to have served a full term — but recommended that any clarification only apply to future elections and not to Johnson’s eligibility.
Johnson was elected to a two-year term in the general election in 2011, filling in for Vicki Stack, who had vacated her seat. She was re-elected to a four-year term in 2013. However, she and her lawyer argued that her two-year term was actually three days short of two years.
The council seemed to all agree that Johnson should not be affected by any clarification, but tempers still flared during some of the discussion.
Paul was adamant in his defense of Cox and the process, saying that there was no political agenda on his end.
“I’m sick of it. I’m sick of hearing about that somehow this council is picking on somebody. We are better than this. There’s an ethos that somebody says that says ‘do no harm.’ Well, a lot of harm is being done tonight, so letap just stop tonight and just move on and figure it out,” Paul said during the meeting.
Johnson said she was glad that she would not be affected but maintained her belief that there were political agendas at the heart of the matter and called it a “terrible public process” that has hurt the dynamic of the council.
“This obviously has heightened adversarial relationships and animosity,” she said.
Council asked staff to bring multiple options to clarify a two-year term based on both days and years. Councilor Charley Able argued that since Johnson would be allowed to run, there was no immediate need to clarify language in the charter.
Updated Feb. 13, 2017, at 2:09 p.m. As a matter of clarification, Councilor Charley Able’s statement was changed to reflect his argument that the need to clarify language in Lakewood’s charter was not immediate.