Four-year council terms rare in Wisconsin cities

In the interest of being fair to the debate on lengthening the mayor's term from two to four years, I found this article in the Kenosha News, posted February 23:

While Kenosha’s aldermen consider moving from two-year to four-year terms, they’re pretty much alone compared to other cities in the state. Milwaukee is the only major city in the state with four-year terms for aldermen. Most others are two, while Eau Claire and Waukesha terms are three years. The Kenosha proposal, sponsored by aldermen Ray Misner, Anthony Nudo and David Bogdala, will be considered by the City Council March 2. The sponsors say the change would save money, improve continuity in governance, give aldermen more time to focus on legislation and avoid situations where the council and mayor’s office could change in the same year.

— Last spring, Eau Claire moved from two-year to three-year terms thanks to a referendum. A similar measure was defeated in 2000. According to Eau Claire City Clerk Donna Austed, the terms will be staggered: Five city council members and the council president will be elected this year, with the remaining five spots elected next year. The term extension was proposed by two council members that were not seeking re-election, Austed said.
— Milwaukee has had four-year terms for its 15 aldermen since 1924, according to Barry Zalben, manager of Milwaukee’s legislative reference bureau. All 15 face re-election every four years, with the current terms expiring in 2012. Zalben said typically three or four seats remain unopposed each election cycle. Milwaukee’s mayoral election is held at the same time and also features a four-year term.
— Green Bay, only slightly bigger than Kenosha, has two-year terms and seems happy with them.
“No one is talking about extending term lengths at all,” Green Bay City Clerk Chad Weininger said. “It seems like everyone is comfortable with two-year terms. One year is not realistic, and there’s no talk for four-year terms. It’s not a huge topic out here."
— The Madison City Council’s two-year terms are up from one-year terms the city had until the 1970s. The mayoral term was extended from two years to four in 1991. Lisa Veldran, administrative assistant to the Madison council, said the reasoning for that change was similar to what Kenosha’s aldermanic sponsors have been saying. “Mayors would be on board for the first year and then would be looking at re-election again right away,” Veldran said. “It would give them a longer time for legislation and to start working on their agendas. It didn’t pay to have them start and then have to run for re-election again in a year.”
— Racine is one of several Wisconsin cities with staggered two-year terms for aldermen.
Elections for odd-numbered districts are held in odd-numbered years, and even-numbered districts in even-numbered years. Donna Deuster, assistant clerk and assistant treasury manager, said there is no talk in changing that system at this time.
— Appleton, Beloit and Oshkosh have staggered two-year terms; Waukesha has staggered three-year terms. “We don’t lose our whole council in one shot that way,” Cindi Hesse, city clerk for Appleton, said.

Misner said four-year terms would be more effective than staggered two-year terms in Kenosha. “We are a large city, and we can’t look at ourselves as a small town anymore,” Misner said. “I think we need to find something that works for our council, and I want there to be some kind of breather. You need some standard put in place so there is continuity and experienced people running local government at all times.” Misner said he had no plans to propose a referendum on this issue.

“There haven’t been people banging down my door opposed to this,” Misner said. “If people are happy with their alderman, they’re not going to be too upset about this.” City residents do have 60 days to file a petition to oppose the city’s resolution if it passes, Misner said. And Misner said if the city passes this proposal, there may be some more uniformity in similar-sized cities. “If we go to four-year terms, I think you’ll find a lot of other cities considering it,” Misner said. “I hope it’s a trend.”