Watsonville City Council pushes discussion of extending term limits to March

The Watsonville City Council pushed discussion to March of a proposal to extend term limits for elected officials, in order to determine whether the city charter needs additional changes. 

City Councilmember Eduardo Montesino proposed Tuesday to increase the number of consecutive terms an elected official can serve from two to three, so projects in the works and ones currently underway can continue without disruption. 

Extending the number of consecutive terms is not about entitlement, he said, it’s about offering experience and knowledge to the community and letting the people decide. “Let me be clear, a third term is not a guarantee. It is not owed,” he said. “Nothing is given. Everything is earned at the ballot box.” 

Currently, councilmembers can serve up to two consecutive four-year terms. Local politicians are eligible to run for office again two years after finishing their second term, according to the Watsonville city charter. Changes to the charter must be approved by voters. 

For this proposal to end up on a ballot, the city council would have to hold two public hearings before taking a final vote at a third meeting, according to City Attorney Samantha Zutler. The council will return to the discussion at its next meeting on March 10, and also discuss other changes that might need to be made to the city charter, such as modernizing the language, as it did in 2024. 

Montesino’s proposal was met with pushback by Councilmembers Ari Parker, Vanessa Quiroz-Carter and Maria Orozco. Parker said the decision to put a change like this on a ballot should be done by voters, not the city council. 

“Eight years is different than 12 years,” said Parker. “Twelve years is a long time. Twelve years a child goes from 12 to 24, and so I feel like for us to do it — that’s extremely self-serving.” 

Quiroz-Carter said that Montesino’s presentation did not explain how a third term would benefit constituents. “All I heard was, ‘Me, me, me. I want to be around to see this get done.’ Well, sorry, sometimes that’s not going to happen,” she said. 

She and Parker also brought up the 1989 redistricting lawsuit, which required Watsonville to move to district-based elections, because there was a lack of diversity on the city council at the time. Quiroz-Carter argued that extending term limits would limit the chances for younger residents to run for office and serve their community, and would make the seven-member council less representative of the people it serves. 

“If we’re here for 12 years, that’s going to be us consolidating power for ourselves, and I’m not OK with that,” she said. 

Councilmember Jimmy Dutra said he agreed with Montesino’s argument for a third term because ultimately voters can decide whether to keep an incumbent in office. Community members want someone who’s going to be able to get the things that they need done, he said. 

“Look at us up here, it’s a pretty diverse group of people on this council,” he said. “So, at the end of the day, I think it’s up to the people to decide, not us. And we put things on the ballot all the time, and I think that people [should] vote on this.” 

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