(The Center Square) — Over 3,000 Bossier residents voted in Saturday’s election to decide on retroactive term limits for the city council and mayor and decided to replace prospective term limits initiatives passed in March with retroactive ones.
Four long-standing council members are now disqualified from reelection — Jeff Free, Jeff Darby, David Montgomery and Don Williams.
“The people in Bossier City were happy and that’s what makes Bossier Term Limits Coalition happy,” said David Crockett, one of the original founders of the group. “It was the people in Bossier City that responded to the way our local politicians were acting.”
The Secretary of State’s office reported that 3,037 people voted on Prop No. 1 concerning city council term limits and 3,036 on Prop No. 2 concerning mayoral term limits.
When it came to voting, there wasn’t much of a difference between the two proposition outcomes. Around 83% to 84% voted in favor of both amendments to the city charter, with 16% to 17% voting against them.
Proposition 1 passed with 2,517 votes in favor of city council term limits. The charter amendment said that no person who has already served three terms shall be eligible for reelection. 17% or 520 people voted against the charter amendment.
Proposition 2, proposing mayoral term limits, passed with 2,557 votes in favor. 16% or 479 people voted against the charter amendment that implemented retroactive mayoral term limits where no person elected as mayor having served three terms is eligible for reelection.
Both amendments count terms served before Jan. 1, 2024.
These new limits will replace the previously passed ones on the March 29 ballot. While two propositions on the previous election ballot mentioned term limits, they were only prospective.
The previous limits made no council member or mayor elected official eligible for reelection if they’ve served two and one-half terms in three consecutive terms beginning on or after Jan. 1. However, this would’ve allowed those elected to take a cycle off and be eligible for reelection again.
The term limits battle has been a years-long debate. The Bossier Term Limits Coalition and others living in Bossier City have worked on petitions and advocated for term limits in council meetings.
The Center Square reached out to the councilmembers about the term limit election results, but no response was received.
