4-year terms rears its ugly head...in Charlotte

The idea of staggered 4-year terms is the Holy Grail of politicians who want to "rule" rather than "govern".

It is inherently anti-democratic.  It is a setup that prevents the voting public from making wholesale changes - even when necessary for the good of the community.  Fortunately, it also typically meets with strong public pushback whenever elected officials are foolish enough to bring it up.

Charlotte's newly seated Board however appears to be considering it.  See this article from the Charlotte Observer for the details.

For those not familiar with the setup, here's what it does.  Instead of all elected officials being elected every 2 years as is done in all the North Mecklenburg towns, half of the Commissioners are elected one cycle for four year terms.  Two years later the remaining Commissioners and the Mayor are elected for four year terms.

Elected officials like 4-year staggered terms because they have to run less often.  They also like it because it provides stability.  (Career politicians, or those who aspire to be, love nothing more than stability.)

Davidson's recent election should provide the region all the counter example it needs for why 4-year staggered terms are a bad idea.  Can you imagine if the crew of now former Davidson elected officials had not all been up for election?  What kind of shennaigans might they have gotten up to?  Under a 4-year staggered terms setup the voters who just corrected the problems around the Davidson dais would not have been able to thoroughly do so.

Though, there is an upside to having this debate about term lengths periodically.

Here at aShortChronicle HQ there's something kinda fun to watch when electeds get power hungry and think about pushing for this change.  The public consistently wants nothing to do with it.  It motivates people to get involved and work to stop it.  The stability so coveted by the electeds tends to be shown the door along with the bad idea of 4-year terms.  That's what happened in Davidson when Town Hall tried to push for it in 2011/2012.  The idea was shut down...twice.  It certainly would happen again if it was to ever come up in Davidson in the future, and that will most likely happen in Charlotte if their new Board pushes for it as well.