Lincoln voters could be presented with competing versions of two proposed charter amendments in November after Mayor Leirion Gaylor Baird and City Council Chair Brodey Weber announced alternatives to citizen-led proposals concerning city elections and council term limits.
Gaylor Baird and Weber outlined the proposals Monday morning ahead of a City Council meeting where the alternatives are scheduled to be introduced. The move follows a Nebraska Supreme Court ruling ordering three charter amendments proposed by Good Government Lincoln onto the November ballot. Those measures would move city elections to even-numbered years, establish term limits for City Council members and allow some residents living within Lincoln’s three-mile extraterritorial jurisdiction to vote in municipal elections.
The city’s first alternative would also move municipal elections to even-numbered years, but with a different transition period. Under the citizen proposal, elections would be held in 2027 and again in 2028, resulting in terms of about one year and eight months for the mayor and district council members elected next year. The city alternative would instead hold the next election in 2027 and the following election in 2030, giving those officeholders terms of about three years and eight months…