By Dolores Sauca Lorusso

A citizens’ petition that would set term limits for elected town officials will go before voters at the May 1 town meeting, although the advisory board will recommend unfavorable action on the proposal.

Article 24’s wording seeks to “petition a special act” by the Legislature that states that “no person may be elected as a member of a Town of Hull Board, Select-person Board, Light Board, etc. of the Town of Hull for more than three full terms or ten and one-half years, whichever is lesser.”

Petition sponsor Christopher Sweeney said he proposed the article to prevent board members from staying in office too long, and potentially “advancing their own agendas.” He cited the term of former select board member John Reilly, who served in that role for 27 years, as what “triggered his interest.”

“Term limits will prevent people from becoming too powerful in office and better reflect the will of the citizens,” Sweeney said. “While there are many reasons to support term limits the core purpose is to regularize the appointment process…if not, it ends up being a monopoly.”

“We have the ability to end the monopoly any time by voting them out,” replied advisory board member Bob Carney, who also said “it is good to see citizens active in civic life.”

Advisory Board Chair David Clinton said that most elected positions are unpaid, and that there are no health or pension benefits associated with being elected in Hull.

“Fifteen years ago, we removed any kind of benefits that could be associated with an elected board member’s stipend…all elected boards that have any kind of payment it is pretty modest,” Clinton said.

He outlined the annual stipends currently paid to elected officials: “Select board stipend is $2,500 for members and $3,000 for the chair. Municipal light board is $450 for members and $600 for the chair. Board of assessors is $400 for members and the chair is higher, not sure of exact amount, may be closer to $1,000. That is voted every year as a boilerplate article.”

The advisory board, which recommends action on articles for town meeting, unanimously voted to recommend that voters take unfavorable action on the term-limit proposal.

Carney said that an unexpected consequence of term limits would be an inability to fill vacancies when a member has to leave office because their term expires.

“To say a successful board member has to wrap up his/her term because of arbitrary term limits, even though that person is doing all the right things, is not going to add value,” Carney said.

“This year there is extremely high turnover on the select board…this is a solution in search of problems,” said member Jay Polito. He noted that Reilly, whom Sweeney cited in his presentation to the board, had been defeated by voters, so the system can “self-correct.”

Sweeney said he has seen people serving long terms in Hull, and it seems “stagnant, comfortable, complacent, and redundant.”

“Term limits reduce the likelihood of a board member becoming tired and losing vigor to encourage focused participation,” he said. “New board members are more likely to speak up with new ideas.”

Advisory Board member Robyn Healy said she was apprehensive about limiting terms and losing experience of members who have served for years.

“I am concerned about the loss of experience…On each of the boards you need to have background experience and understanding. Lose experience and you might financially go the wrong way,” said Healy.

Sweeney said studies have shown term limits “Reduce corruption, ensure greater fiscal responsibility, and lower taxes…the longer politicians stay in office the more of our dollars they spend.”

Town Counsel James Lampke said the wording of the article should specifically indicate that the town is looking to amend the town’s charter through special legislation.

“The warrant is like an agenda and the motion needs to have significant detail if petitioning the Legislature,” Lampke said. “Typically, when we petition the Legislature, we have a motion that says, ‘Move to petition the legislature as follows’ and then we give the language that we want to have them adopt.”

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