During their meeting yesterday, the Prince George’s County Council approved a proposal to place a referendum on the November ballot to allow elected officials to serve three terms instead of two.  As reported by the Washington Post:

Prince George’s is the only jurisdiction in the D.C. area that has term limits, which some county officials say hampers their ability to move the county forward.

“We are always starting over,” said council member Andrea Harrison (D-Springdale), adding that as a member of the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments, she has seen other jurisdictions build more successfully on long-term ideas because there is continuity among elected officials.

“Prince George’s County is the only [jurisdiction] with constant turnover,” she said. “We have to remember that we are competing and are at a regional disadvantage because of our term limits.”

Term limits were imposed in the county 20 years ago and efforts to repeal them have been rejected.

Angela Holmes, president of the Prince George’s County Civic Federation, said that voters have already spoken — first when the policy was created and later by defeating other attempts to reverse it.

However, a commission that was appointed to review the county’s charter recommended a ballot measure to allow members to serve up to three consecutive terms, an approach it believed to be more palatable to voters.

Additional coverage of this issue can be found on Conduit Street.