Palm Beach County GOP officially embraces term limit law

In support of the Palm Beach County 8-year term limits law, the Palm Beach County Republican Executive Committee -- the ruling body of the local GOP -- approved the following resolution 170-0 at their Wednesday night meeting:

WHEREAS, citizens of Palm Beach County collected over 65,000 signatures to put a referendum on the countywide ballot to limit the terms of county commissioners to eight years of office;

WHEREAS, the voters of Palm Beach County approved this charter amendment by 70% of the vote in 2002;

WHEREAS, the 8-year commissioner term limit went into effect for the first time in 2010;

WHEREAS, nearly all rotation in office on the county commission in the eight years prior 2010 has been due to indictments rather than competitive elections;

WHEREAS, term limits address the issue of corruption by reducing hubris and opportunity and improving transparency by widening the circle of those with intimate knowledge and experience in local governance;

WHEREAS, term limits improve citizen access to office, broaden the range of experience on the commission and mandate competitive elections at regular intervals;

WHEREAS, politicians in other Florida counties have appealed to the courts to revoke their citizen-approved term limits;

WHEREAS, recent national, statewide and Southeast Florida polling indicates approximately 75 percent of voters of all parties continue to support term limits;

THE REPUBLICAN PARTY OF PALM BEACH COUNTY HEREBY RESOLVES that Palm Beach County commissioners respect the clearly expressed will of the people and retain, defend and abide by the voter-initiated and approved eight-year term limit.