Council Tentatively OKs Election on Term Limits : Glendale: Majority supports a March ballot measure on caps for members. A similar drive failed in 1992.

Backers of a new campaign to impose term limits on City Council members won a narrow victory this week as a divided council agreed to let voters decide the issue in the upcoming March presidential primary.

A committee of Glendale business leaders asked the council Tuesday to hold a special election on a City Charter amendment limiting council members to two consecutive four-year terms. A similar drive died in 1992 after proponents failed to gather enough signatures to place the issue on the ballot.

Council members Sheldon Baker, Eileen Givens and Mary Ann Plumley stopped short of endorsing term limits but argued that the matter should be decided by the voters, not the council. Mayor Rick Reyes and Councilman Larry Zarian disagreed, saying proponents should follow the initiative process and gather the estimated 4,000 signatures needed to put the issue before the electorate.

“All we’re saying is, we believe there is a lot of support for this and we think the voters should be able to speak on the issue,” said Gerald Barrone, spokesman for the term limit supporters.

“Whenever the voters have had the opportunity, they have voted for term limits. We aren’t targeting anything with this, we just feel it’s an idea whose time has come,” he said.

Under the proposed amendment, council members who leave office after completing two terms would be able to seek the office again after a two-year hiatus. There would be no “grandfather” clause, meaning that Givens, who is serving her second term, and Zarian, who is serving his fourth, would be unable to seek reelection when their terms expire in 1999. However, both have said they will not run again.

Backers of the plan are also seeking term limits for the Board of Education. Council members on Tuesday decided to ask that the school board decide by Nov. 22 whether it wishes to be included in the ballot initiative.

The proponents had also asked that the elected positions of city treasurer and city clerk become appointees of the city manager or council, but the council rejected that portion of the proposal. The Glendale Community College board would not be affected because it is not governed by the City Charter.

The council instructed City Atty. Scott Howard to draft legislation to put the charter amendment on the ballot. The council must vote on the matter by Dec. 8 in order to meet county deadlines for the March election, officials said.

Barrone is a retired banking executive who withdrew from the City Council race in 1993 because of a family illness. Barrone said other members of the term-limit committee do not want to be identified, other than Mary Hamilton, a former Chamber of Commerce president and a member of the Glendale College Board of Trustees.

Such secrecy--and the fact that the special election will cost $80,000 to $100,000, drew sharp criticism from Zarian, who said he has seen “little evidence” of widespread public support for local term limits.

“I have already said I am not running again, so this doesn’t affect me. What bothers me is that it’s the wrong thing to do,” Zarian said. “If this passes, you’re going to force some very talented and experienced people that this city needs out of the running, and you’re taking away the public’s right to choose. You also will have a very small, influential group of people choosing who they want on the City Council every two years.”

Zarian said he believes the term-limit committee includes “many of the same people” who were involved in the failed 1992 drive. During that campaign, term-limit proponents were accused of trying to oust Zarian and two former council members because of their support for a law limiting hillside development.

Zarian said he plans to speak out against the initiative at public forums during the campaign.

Givens said she also has “serious concerns” about term limits, but “people should have the right to decide for themselves what kind of system they want.”