Village officials propose four-year terms

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By Dan King

It takes a long time to get to know the ins and outs of local government.

That’s the rationale Mayor Ken Bartholomew gave for suggesting the Village Board extend elected terms from two-year terms to four-year terms.

“I’ve thought about this since I’ve been on the board,” Bartholomew said. “It takes a year just to get used to being on the board. By the time you get squared away it’s time to run for reelection again.”

Bartholomew proposed a resolution, which will be discussed further at its next meeting, to extend the terms of the mayor and village trustees to four years.

All the trustees agreed with Bartholomew that getting a firm grasp of what it take to be a village board member takes some time.

Candidate pic Ken Bartholomew
Ken Bartholomew

“It takes a long time to become acclimated,” said trustee Walt Sandford. “If there’s somebody opposed to (extending terms) I’d love to see them run for office and get involved.”
Pat Roche, the board’s newest trustee, who was appointed to the position after nobody came forward to run for the seat, said: “It takes a while to figure out what are the problems, under the surface, that you’re not aware of as a regular citizen.”

If the resolution passes, the next village election – in March – will be for three-year terms and each following election will be for four-year terms, thus making all village elections on odd years and staggering it so there is a village election every other year instead of every year. During that election, the seats occupied by Sandford and Roche will be up for contention.

“Another benefit of doing this,” Bartholomew said, “is we cut our election costs in half. Instead of having an election every year, we only have one every other year.”

When Bartholomew, trustee Pat Norton and trustee Marge Mohn are up for reelection in 2017, they, and anyone who chooses to run against them, will then be running for four-year terms.

Bartholomew also said that the village clerk seat would become a four-year term, instead of being appointed each year by the mayor. The village judge seat will also be up for election in 2017, but that is already a four-year term.

Bartholomew said that given the lack of voter turnout in the most recent village election, cutting costs on elections would be a good idea.

As of last Wednesday, there were 1,233 registered voters residing within the village of Whitehall and at the last village election, in March, only 117 voters cast a vote in the mayoral race – albeit an uncontested mayoral race.

Anyone opposed to the idea of extending the terms to four years can circulate a permissive referendum, which would need to be signed by 20 percent of the registered voters in the village of Whitehall, or 247 registered voters.

Barring a successful petition, village officials plan to vote in favor of the proposed term change.