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

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Honorable Bob Jacobson May 26, 2004 Page 9 pamphlet in all circumstances (Citations omitted). However, in these circumstances, where the ballot pamphlet and the recent history of the term limits law reasonably led the voters to believe that the law was unchanged and where the fundamental right to hold public office is at issue, we conclude that the voters did not intend to change the term limits law so as to disqualify persons who had served two terms of office before July 1993. Woo, supra, 100 Cal.Rptr.2d at 162-164. As Woo instructs us, the holding of public office is a fundamental right that may only be curtailed if expressly provided by law. Where there is ambiguity, as in the 1996 Hawaii County Charter amendment, any ambiguity must be resolved in favor of allowing a potential candidate to run for elective office. State ex. rel. Voss v. Davis, 418 S.W.2d 163 (Missouri 1967), an old case found in our original research of this issue, and perhaps the only case which mildly supports the position that the 1996 Hawaii County Charter amendment has retroactive effect, is patently and easily distinguishable on its facts. In Davis, the Supreme Court of Missouri held, inter alia, that the constitutional authority and power to amend the Kansas City Charter carried with it the right of the people to determine the length of term of their elected officials, even though that incidentally would involve shortening the terms of incumbents. However, in Davis, and unlike the present situation involving the Hawaii County Charter, the Kansas City Charter amendments included the following language (recited in pertinent part): Sec. 489. Terms of office to be two years. The terms of office of all elective officials, including the mayor, the councilmen and the judges of the municipal court, shall be two years, and until their successors are elected and have qualified. The terms of office of officials elected at each biennial election after such 1965 election shall continue until ten o'clock in the forenoon of April 10th, two years after the date when they were elected and until their successors are elected and have qualified. This Section shall take effect immediately upon adoption. Sec. 490. Elections held every two years . . . (I)n the year 1967, and in f each second year thereafter, a regular municipal election for the choice of all such municipal officers to be elected by the people shall be held on the last Tuesday in March. A primary election shall be held in the city, in each election precinct thereof on the fourth Tuesday preceding each regular municipal election. All candidates for office shall be nominated and all