Village Board drops idea of reinstating term limits

The controversial idea of asking voters whether to  reinstate term limits for Grafton village officials that, if approved, would have likely kicked Trustee Lisa Uribe Harbeck off the Village Board, was suddenly dropped Monday.

Village President Dan Delorit told the board it would have been too difficult to submit a referendum question in time for April’s ballot.

The board then voted 6-1 against  bringing the question back for discussion at a later date, with Trustee Amy Luft voting in favor on continued discussion.

Harbeck has argued the referendum was only brought up to oust her from the board since she would have been the only trustee affected if the term limit ordinance didn’t include a grandfather clause.

Harbeck alleged on Tuesday that Delorit decided to drop the question because she filed papers to run against him for the presidency in April.

“One minute the president is full-steam ahead for term limits and then everything comes to a screeching halt,” Harbeck said. “We were suddenly told by him there was no time to add it to the April ballot and there was no fall ballot.

“I think it would have been a hot-button item.”

Given a chance to reply, Delorit declined to comment.

Delorit has denied that the referendum targeted Harbeck. He argued bringing the question to voters would have corrected a 2008 decision by the board to repeal term limits without putting the issue on a ballot.

“They were removed without public discussion,” he said last month. “My belief is that it’s important to the board so it’s important that the community decides on it.”

The Village Board in 2008 unanimously rescinded term limits. Because the vote was a super majority, the repeal did not require a referendum.

The change could have been challenged by residents, forcing a referendum, if a petition with 365 signatures was filed, but none was.

At a September meeting, trustees Harbeck, Jim Miller and Andrew Schwartz opposed the referendum question.

They said the village often has trouble finding people to run for office, which means inexperienced or otherwise uninterested citizens could feel compelled to run if vacancies were created by term limits.

Delorit said Grafton has grown and community involvement along with it, so concerns about a shortage of applicants for the board were outdated.

Harbeck said the abruptness of ditching the question surprised her.

“I am not really sure what happened last night,” she said. “I don’t understand why it came up in the first place and why now that I ran for president it’s now gone.”

She said a lack of transparency on how this issue was handled is one reason she is running for president, but she is happy the election can be focused on questions other than term limits.

“There are a lot of other things we can discuss,” she said. “There are a ton of things going in Grafton.”