2004-03 Council Member Term Limits Article III, Section 3-2, Hawaii County Charter

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Notes 1 Recent litigation seeking the invalidation of the 2002 County Council Reapportionment plan illustrates how time consuming it will be to obtain a judicial resolution of the issues relating to the term limit. Two lawsuits were filed on March 4, 2002, 4 . 5 months prior to the July 23, 2002 candidate filling deadline and 6. 5 months prior to the September 21, 2002 Primary Election. Both are still pending. The case which has moved the "fastest", Citizens for Equitable and Responsible Government ("'CERG") , et al. vs. County of Hawaii, et al . , Civil No. 02-1-0092 (Hilo) , is now at the first step of the appeals process (a Notice of Appeal was filed on January 31, 2003 . ) The second case, Boyd, et al . vs . Van De Car, et al. , Civil No. 02-1-0091 (Hilo) is still in its early stages (Plaintiff' s Motion for Summary Judgment is scheduled for February 14, 2003. ) 2 A motion for partial summary judgment in the CERG case was heard on June 28, 2002, just a few weeks prior to the candidate filing deadline on July 23, 2002 . The Court' s Order denying the motion was filed on July 19, 2002, a few days prior to the candidate filing deadline. If the court had granted the plaintiffs' motion, the 2002 County Council elections would have, at the very least, been delayed. This fact may not have been lost on the court. 3 As discussed infra, it is assumed by this office for the purposes of this review that the lack of a stated effective date means that the amendment took effect upon approval by the voters at the 1996 General Election. However, this office does not assume that a court would take that position on this issue which may be crucial in litigation relating to the specific issue at hand. If this issue is litigated, this office will not advocate a position on the issue but will rather defer to the court. 4 The 22nd amendment reads: "No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice, and no person who has held the office of President, or acted as President, for more than two years of a term to which some other person was elected President shall be elected to the office of President more than once. But this Article shall not apply to any person holding the office of the President when this Article was proposed by the Congress, and shall not prevent any person who may be holding the office of the President, during the term within which this Article becomes operative from holding the 11 �.