Four-Year Terms Are A Deal Breaker

Newtown’s Charter Revision Commission seems to be making good progress in sorting through the long list of possible changes to the structure of local government, reaching consensus already on two important issues: the town should not adopt a town manager/council form of governance, and the first selectman should no longer be aided, or encumbered, by a Board of Selectmen.

We think the commission has got it right on both these issues. Yet it is considering another change that will fundamentally alter the relationship between the voters of Newtown and their top elected officials. Three of the six commissioners either favor or do not object to establishing four-year terms of office for the first selectman, town clerk, Legislative Council, and Board of Finance. Whether the idea will attract a majority still remains to be seen, since there has been no formal vote on the issue. A four-year term for local elected offices that routinely wrestle with the town’s toughest and most controversial issues — particularly the first selectman and the council — is a singularly bad idea.

As we noted in this space a month ago, having the chief elected official’s record put to the electoral test every other year is an extraordinarily effective method for empowering citizens on the local level. The same goes for the Legislative Council.  Most of the reasons given for doubling the term of office have more to do with comfort, convenience, and well-being of the people occupying those offices than with better government. Arguments about accommodating the “learning curve” of elected officials and attracting a “better caliber” of candidate do not stand up in the real world.

Voters in Newtown tend to vote people into office for as long as they wish to serve or until they do something egregious enough to offend most people. Only once in the past 30 years has a first selectman served only two years, and that was in the midst of multiple controversies between 1988 and 1990, when then-First Selectman Rod Mac Kenzie lost the confidence and support of his own party and decided not to run for reelection. We don’t know anyone who remembers that time who wishes Mr Mac Kenzie had had a four-year term.

Most people would agree that members of Congress have a far steeper learning curve than the members of Newtown’s Legislative Council, and yet they manage to stand for election every two years.

We expect that there will be many needed changes in the revised charter document that eventually comes before the town for approval. Creating four-year terms for Newtown’s top elected officials, however, will be the deal breaker if, by chance, the idea survives intact in the final draft. There are no compelling reasons to do it and many not to.