Term limits campaign begins in East Bay city

DANVILLE — Concerned about long-serving incumbents losing touch with the town’s needs, a grassroots group will kick off a campaign Saturday aimed at setting term limits for the Danville Town Council.

“We want to change the system — not necessarily the individual,” said Nasser Mirzai, of the Danville Term Limits group. “The main objective is to have a set of rules and bylaws set in the city” to impose term limits of two terms and eight years to allow for more residents with fresh ideas to run for the council, he said.

The group pointed out that the current five Town Council members have served on either the council or commissions for a total of 88 years, and that Newell Arnerich has served as a councilman for 24 years.

Of the other council members, Vice Mayor Karen Stepper has served 17 years, Mayor Robert Storer has been on the council 10 years, Councilwoman Renee Morgan seven years and Councilwoman Lisa Blackwell two years.

Since Danville incorporated in 1982, no incumbent Town Council member has ever lost a re-election contest.

“When incumbents have been in power for such a long time, they may end up deferring to special interests and ignoring the majority,” the group said in an email. “Most decisions made by the Town Council over the past several years have reflected such a bias.”

As examples of bias, the group contends that small businesses in Danville are struggling and vacancies are growing, developers from outside Danville are being treated with more respect than residents, money is being spent on park benches and skate park feasibility studies rather than on critical road and safety improvements, and that neighborhoods are not being protected from telecoms in Danville’s cell and wireless ordinances. The group claims that the wireless facilities are allowed 50 feet from people’s homes and Danville schools.

“People are getting tired of fighting for their quality of life and for the right to be treated as equals compared to friends of the council and their hand-selected commissioners,” according to the group’s email statement. “It’s not right, and it’s not the way that power was intended. It’s not what Danville is about.”

Mayor Storer took issue with the term limits campaign and issued a statement.

“As a council member in the Town of Danville, we are already limited to a four-year term,” he said in an email. “Then voters are presented with a whole new opportunity to vote to select their elected representatives.

“The whole concept of term limits suggest that voters lack the ability to make educated choices and need to have their options further narrowed by eliminating some experienced candidates who have strong records to stand on,” he continued.

The mayor said he is proud of the city’s accomplishments.

“I believe our record on solid fiscal responsibility, no unfunded liabilities, town services, healthy finances, strong reserve accounts, well-managed assets … and protected open space and the No. 1 safest city in California speaks well,” he continued.

In 2018, Danville was ranked as the safest city in California by SafeWise, a home security and home safety company. SafeWise based its rankings on 2016 FBI reports and population data.

In order to qualify for the November 2020 ballot, the petition will need 3,000 valid signatures — or 10 percent of the registered voters in Danville, according to town spokesman Geoff Gillette. He said there is a deadline of April 2020 for the petition.