Sunday, September 05, 1999
Court to decide term limits
2 Mason officials may be ineligible
BY KEVIN ALDRIDGE
The Cincinnati Enquirer
MASON — Perhaps the most critical votes in the careers of veteran City Councilmen James “Dick” Staten and William Kidder will come before the Nov. 2 election.
They won't be cast by residents. Instead, the seven-member Ohio Supreme Court will decide the political fate of the two incumbents.
The court is reviewing a lawsuit brought by four Mason residents on Aug. 6 against the Warren County Board of Elections. The lawsuit calls for a court order upholding a two-term limit and instructing the board of elections to deny petitions of candidacy for Mr. Staten, in his fifth term, and Mr. Kidder, in his second. The board has refused to deny their candidacies.
The Supreme Court has placed the case on its expedited docket because it is an election matter. A decision is expected by month's end.
“I would be devastated, absolutely devastated, if they ruled against me,” Mr. Staten said Friday. “I think it would be an abuse of my rights because I was already in office when the term limits were passed.”
The two council members could become the first victims of a charter amendment passed by Mason voters in 1993 limiting council members to two consecutive four-year terms and requiring they sit out two years before they can run again. It was made retroactive, so that council service before the November 1993 election counted.
The two councilmen have argued the amendment is unconstitutional because of its retroactive clause.
Last month, Richard Inskeep, Rickey Dotson, Thomas Anderson and Charles Beatty filed a 46-page brief with the court outlining their case against the board of elections. The plaintiffs charge the board with breaching its legal duty to uphold Mason's charter.
However, Mason Law Director Ken Schneider argued that the retroactive clause in the term limit amendment violates Mssrs. Kidder's and Staten's rights under the U.S. and state constitutions.
Mason Councilman John McCurley, in his third term, declared last month that he would resign if the Supreme Court ruled against his colleagues. Mr. McCurley has long said limits cheat residents out of experienced leadership.
Longtime resident Bill Liedhegner said he prefers for election matters to be settled the old-fashioned way.
“At the polls,” he said. “If I don't like somebody that's in office, I want to be able to vote them out. That's what the system is all about.”
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