NANTICOKE — City Council on Wednesday approved two ordinances that will give voters the option this fall to eliminate term limits for both city council members and the mayor.
Ordinances #4 and #5 were given final approval by the Council with a vote of 3-2. Councilman Mike Marcella and Vice President John Telencho, who also voted against the move at the July 19 meeting, cast the dissenting votes.
Voters can now expect two questions to appear on the Nov. 7 municipal election ballot asking if they want to delete Section 2.10 and Section 3.09 of the city’s Home Rule Charter, which will eliminate the provisions which prohibit council members and the mayor from serving more than three elected, consecutive terms.
According to City Council Solicitor William Finnegan, the paperwork will be filed with the Election Bureau tomorrow and the bureau will ultimately decide how the questions are worded on the ballot.
During the meeting, Telencho once again expressed his opinion that eliminating term limits would discourage people from running for office.
Telencho also took issue with the fact that during the last meeting, Councilman Joseph Nalepa said there was little to no interest from the people in the community in wanting to hold a seat on the council.
“In 2019, there were eight people who ran for four seats. In 2021, there were four people running for three seats,” said Telencho.
Nalepa argued that everyone who ran in the last two election cycles were “already elected.”
“They were all involved with politics already,” said Nalepa. “There’s nobody outside of this realm, this political realm, that is running.”
Telencho pointed out that that wasn’t necessarily true, since he and Marcella ran and were elected for the first time in 2019.
Nalepa then doubled…
