Hastings City Council passes initial vote to term limit city board and committee members

HASTINGS, Neb. – The Hastings City Council is beginning the process to limit how many terms that members on city boards and committees can serve consecutively. 

At Monday night's meeting, council members reconsidered Ordinance 4798, which would enact term limits to all positions on city boards and committees in Hastings. 

Ward 2 councilman Brad Consbruck was absent from Monday's meeting. 

The city council previously voted on the same ordinance during their May 12th meeting, which failed by a 3-5 vote. Council members Steve Huntley, Michael Anderson, and Marc Rowan voted 'yes', while Larry Consbruck, Maggie Esch, Brad Consbruck, Brian Hoffman, and Matt Fong voted 'no.'

Ordinance 4798 was brought back to the city council on Monday, because the council only has three sessions after the initial vote for a reconsideration of a previous vote.

Ward 2 councilman Larry Consbruck said he brought the ordinance back for reconsideration, because he planned to change his vote to 'yes' this time. 

"I previously voted against this ordinance for the simple reason I thought that the mayor had the ability to appoint whoever, and he does," said Consbruck. "After further consideration, you want to look down the road 5 or 10 years, and you don't have someone willing to replace anybody, then it's in city code there are term limits."

The proposed ordinance would enact term limits on boards and committees where no individual would be able to serve more than two consecutive terms on the same city board or committee, but could serve again four years after their second term.

Plus, no individual could serve on more than one city board or committee at a time. 

Currently, the Mayor of Hastings has the power to reject the appointment or reappointment of any city board or committee member.

Ward 3 Councilwoman Maggie Esch said she is generally in support of term limits, but advised the council take a different route in considering the motion to term limit board and committee positions. 

"Before we put term limits on volunteer positions, we should probably set precedents for ourselves first," said Esch. "If we're going to term volunteer positions, why haven't we first termed elected official positions, which currently don't have terms? I feel like that would be setting a standard moving forward if we first termed ourselves as elected officials, then I'd be more inclined to support putting term limits on volunteer positions."

After each council member spoke on their opinions toward the ordinance, the vote to reconsider passed 5-3, with Mayor Jay Beckby casting his vote in approval to make a majority vote. 

"I'm a big advocate of fresh ideas, I don't like stagnation, and I believe no term limits lead to stagnation and less fresh ideas and new blood. I am a firm believer that I don't want alliances formed on these boards when somebody is on there for 15, 20, 30 years," said Beckby. "Sometimes we form alliances within the community, and these boards have more power than a lot people probably think they have to put things in front of the city council that are necessary. I don't like the idea of alliances formed and not working with new people."

The next vote to approved the ordinance passed on the same 5-3 vote. Larry Consbruck changed his vote to yes from the May 12th meeting, while every other council member kept their same vote. 

The ordinance must still be approved twice more at future city council meetings to officially become part of the Hastings City Code.