Downey may consider changes to term limits

Councilwoman Claudia Frometa, pictured here in 2023, requested a discussion Tuesday on Downey’s term limits, which restrict council members to two four-year terms.

DOWNEY – Councilwoman Claudia M. Frometa voiced a desire to reexamine Downey’s term limits as part of her public comments on Tuesday, asking city staff to schedule a discussion on the matter for the next city council meeting.

“It’s been a very long time since we looked at term limits for the city of Downey, and I think we are at that point where we can have that discussion,” said Frometa, who has two years left on her second and final term.

Downey voters approved term limits in 1993, restricting council members to two four-year terms. Because the law is written into the city charter, any changes require voter approval.

An effort to loosen Downey’s term limits happened in 2008. Measure G would have allowed council members to serve three consecutive terms and return after a two-year waiting period. It was defeated in a special election with 67% of voters opposed.

Former mayor Mario Guerra, a major proponent of Measure G, said Wednesday he was surprised to hear the topic come up again. Still, he said it was “probably something that should be looked at.”

“I do believe that there should be a way for the residents to bring in somebody that they want,” said Guerra. “If you’re Kirk Cartozian, Roger Brossmer, Alex Saab, then former mayor Meridith Perkins or Dave Gafin, you could never ever run again. I just thought that was wrong.”

He added that with two terms “you don’t get to finish what you started.”

“The problem is once you get momentum, you’re really good at what you’re doing in your second term because now you have the experience on getting things done,” said Guerra. “The last two years, you build on your legacy projects but then you’re out of office before it gets done.

“I was on the downtown subcommittee, and we were doing all the street stuff and everything else… All of a sudden I come out of office, and they do things completely different because then they were like, ‘Oh, we didn’t like what Mario had wanted,’ and so they do it.”

Piggybacking off Frometa’s comments, Mayor Mario Trujillo said that “it may be a good time to relook at the [city] charter” as a whole, adding that his own citywide District 5 should be addressed.

“I think that it should be – and this will be after I’m gone, by the way – it should be its own district based on population comparison,” said Trujillo. “It should be the fifth district, so that there’s five districts equally proportioned, one vote per council member and they would continue to rotate the mayoral seat amongst all five, or… it may be a directly mayoral seat elected in the future city-wide, such as El Monte and other cities.”

There are 23 cities in Los Angeles County who directly elect their mayors, including Long Beach, Pasadena and Whittier.

Eric Pierce contributed to this story.