John Matthews
WMAL.com

SILVER SPRING — (WMAL) The people have spoken – and their words were not what Montgomery County Councilmembers wanted to hear.

By a better than 2 – 1 margin, county voters approved term limits for local lawmakers, a move that will force four incumbent members to leave offices at the end of their current terms in 2018.

“I’m not surprised. I think most of us assumed that it would prevail,” said Councilmember Roger Berliner, who is one of the four facing the new three-term limit. “I regret it. I believe I served my community well, and would have liked the opportunity if I had chosen to run again and have the voters decide whether I served them well,” he added.

Berliner, along with George Leventhal, Nancy Floreen and Marc Elrich, could keep their county elected service alive with a run for the County Executive job, which will be vacated by Isiah Leggett in two years. Leggett, who would also be subject to the term limit law, had already announced he would not seek a fourth term.

A fifth member, Nancy Navarro, will be allowed to run for another term. Voters overwhelmingly voted yes on a separate ballot question that defines a “full term” as two years or longer. Navarro, whose first term was shorter than that, will benefit from the new definition.

The term limits ballot is a victory for perennial county government gadfly Robin Ficker, who led the petition drive to put term limits on the ballot.

“If we’re want to make Montgomery County number one, we’re going to go with term limits, we’re going to have fresh ideas,” said Ficker. “[Voters] came to the realization that we needed to change course, that we weren’t moving ahead, and that we were stalled.”
Copyright 2016 by WMAL.com. All Rights Reserved. (PHOTO: Montgomery County Government)