A group of Inglewood locals is launching a new effort to put term limits on the city’s mayor and four City Council members, saying the city is due for a leadership refresh.
The group’s new ballot initiative, called the Inglewood Fair Governance and Term Limits Charter Amendment, was submitted to the city on Wednesday. It would limit mayors to two four-year terms in office and council members to three.
“No public office should be a lifelong seat,” Miya Walker, an Inglewood resident who ran for mayor in 2022, said in a press release from the HEIRS Political Action Committee. “Term limits will finally bring candidates with fresh ideas from a new generation of leaders who offer real solutions to our quality-of-life issues.”
Inglewood Mayor James Butts, elected in 2011, and Councilmember Eloy Morales, elected in 2003, are both past their third terms in office. Councilmember Alex Padilla is wrapping up his third full term.
Butts, who plans to run for reelection this fall, said Inglewood officials are already properly limited by the current system.
“You can only serve for four years, and then you have to be reelected,” he said. “This is saying you can’t vote for who you want to serve.”
Padilla and Morales did not immediately return requests for comment from The LA Local, nor did first-term Councilmember Gloria Gray and second-term Councilmember Dionne Faulk.
The proposed amendment wouldn’t affect this fall’s elections for mayor and two council seats and would allow current and former officeholders to seek one more term in office.
Dallas Fowler, co-founder of HEIRS PAC, said the initiative is not targeted at any sitting elected officials.
“We’re seeing generations of young leaders go by and not have the opportunity to serve,” Fowler said. “It leads to the permeation of this absolute power that James Butts is exacting over Inglewood.”
Fowler and HEIRS PAC are also behind the two police accountability initiatives submitted to the city two weeks ago.
This isn’t the first time term limits have been discussed in Inglewood. Current LA City Councilmember Curren Price Jr. was part of an effort to institute term limits in Inglewood all the way back in 1989, according to the LA Times.
The new initiative still needs to clear a legal review from the city and gather signatures from 15% of registered Inglewood voters in order to make it to the Nov. 3 ballot.
Inglewood’s elections will be busy this fall. Besides the mayoral and council elections, voters will pick school board members and could weigh in on ballot measures covering billboards, parking, stadium taxes and policing.
