Boulder County voters will probably be asked this fall to permit Boulder County Sheriff Joe Pelle, who’s midway through his fourth four-year term, to have a chance to run for a fifth term in 2018.
On Thursday morning, County Commissioners Deb Gardner and Cindy Domenico expressed their support for a request that they put a term-limit extension for the post of sheriff on November’s countywide election and directed staff to draft three potential ballot measures.
Louisville police Chief David Hayes had written the commissioners in January that the county’s local police chiefs were requesting that the commissioners place the issue on the ballot.
Hayes wrote that the Boulder, Longmont, Lafayette, Louisville, Nederland, Ward and University of Colorado police chiefs “believe that the citizens of Boulder County would benefit from Joe serving an additional term to help further ensure the success of the Sheriff’s Office and its part in the criminal justice system.
“This is particularly important now, as over the next four to six years Boulder County will need to make some crucial decisions regarding the jail and treatment options,” he wrote.
One approach would ask voters to allow Boulder County’s sheriff to serve as many as five consecutive terms. A second might ask for another number of additional terms beyond the current four-term limit. A third might remove term limits altogether for the office of sheriff.
Pelle, 58, was first elected sheriff in 2002, won re-election in 2006 and in 2010, which would have been his last term. But Boulder County voters in 2011 approved a measure allowing sheriffs to run for — and if elected and re-elected — serve four consecutive terms.
In 2009, Boulder County voters approved relaxing term limits for the Boulder County district attorney, which technically is a state government elected office. A Boulder County district attorney can now serve up to three consecutive four-year terms.
However, voters in last year’s election rejected a proposal to allow the district attorney to serve four consecutive terms.
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