The entrance to Prince’s Lakes Town Hall is seen in August 2022. Beginning in 2024, all five town council seats will have staggered terms. The elections for the town council and clerk-treasurer will also be moved to even-numbered years.
Noah Crenshaw | Daily Journal
Changes are on the horizon for voters in Prince’s Lakes as the town prepares to stagger terms for its elected offices and change election years.
Beginning in 2024, all five town council seats and the clerk-treasurer position will see changes to when the positions appear on ballots. Currently, the six offices are elected at the same time during municipal elections in odd-numbered years, including this year.
However, town council members unanimously passed an ordinance last month changing this effective Jan. 1, 2024. Under the changes, two town council members will be elected in 2024, while three will be elected in 2026. The positions will continue to be four-year terms, and all elections will be in even-numbered years, according to town documents.
As part of the changes, the clerk-treasurer election will also be moved to even-numbered years. It will be up for election every four years starting in 2026, town documents say.
Registered voters will continue to vote for all six elected offices as normal for this year’s municipal elections. However, those who are elected will temporarily not serve normal four-year terms.
The three town council members who receive the most votes in this year’s election will serve three-year terms starting next January, with the next election for these seats taking place in 2026. The two council members who receive the least votes will only serve one year, with their next elections being in 2024, documents say.
The clerk-treasurer elected in this year’s elections will only serve three years in office before the position comes up for election in 2026, documents say.
After 2026, all terms will return to the normal length of four years.
These changes have been talked about for years, and result from concerns about whether it was a good idea for everyone on the town council to be elected at the same time, said Greg Nelson, town council president.
For example, if 10 people were to run for all five seats, there is a chance that no incumbents would be retained. Having a completely brand new council could lead to issues where members are uninformed about the council’s current work, or about what projects the town has underway, he said.
“We didn’t think it would be fair to the town to have an all-brand new board, so we wanted to stagger the terms,” Nelson said.
While terms will temporarily be shorter, Nelson stressed that current council members were not trying to shorten future members’ terms or their own, for their benefit. They just want to bring Prince’s Lakes in line with other towns, he said.
“There’s no hidden agenda behind it,” Nelson said.
Staggering the terms is not expected to affect the day-to-day operations of the town, but it will help new council members with running the town whenever they are elected, Nelson said.
“I think it’s a good idea that you always have somebody on there that has been on there for a year or two,” he said. “You’ll have people that’s been on there and … they can help the newer people understand and get a hang of what’s going on.”
