By Staff Reporter |

New campaign signs appearing in the Chandler area are claiming a ballot amendment would keep term limits — but it actually rolls them back.

The signs advocate for the passage of Proposition 410 this November with phrasing that includes “Keep Term Limits.” In reality, the passage of Proposition 410 would amend the city of Chandler’s charter to expand term limits. 

Under the proposition, individuals may serve 16 consecutive years — eight years as a council member, eight years as the mayor — before triggering a four-year waiting period. 

The proposition seeks to clear away confusion resulting from myriad interpretations of current term limits within the city charter, namely one interpretation which declares that the present charter’s provision for two consecutive term limits on the council applies to the council members and the mayor together.

Additionally, the proposition clarifies that individuals elected to be mayor or elected to the council would be limited to two consecutive terms with a waiting period of four years after those terms. Again, nonconsecutive terms wouldn’t trigger the four-year waiting period. 

The four-year waiting period can be waived, however, by the council to fill any vacancies on the council including for the office of the mayor. 

The city charter amendment on the November ballot stands to benefit at least one council member: Councilman Matt Orlando, who filed a statement of interest to run for mayor in next year’s election. Orlando is serving his second consecutive term on the council. Under the one interpretation of the current charter, Orlando would not be eligible to run for mayor in 2026. 

The council introduced the proposition following challenges to the interpretation of term limits within the current language of the charter, which puts limits on a “consecutive combination” of terms served as mayor and on the council.

“No person shall be eligible to be elected to the office of councilmember for more than two consecutive terms, or to the office of mayor for more than two consecutive terms or to more than a consecutive combination of the same,” states the current charter. “A person elected to two consecutive terms as a councilmember or two consecutive terms as mayor or a combination of the same as above set forth shall not be eligible to hold either office again until four years have elapsed.”

A lawsuit over the current charter language prompted Mayor Kevin Hartke to cease his 2026 campaign for a council seat. 

“The City Council desires to propose amendments to the City Charter to clarify certain ambiguities in the Charter regarding the term limits for councilmembers and mayor,” stated the resolution passed earlier this year. 

Hartke faced a lawsuit from a former opponent, Ruth Jones, who ran against him in 2022. Jones contended in her lawsuit, filed in May, that the city charter’s term limits invalidated Hartke’s election in 2022. Hartke served on the city council for nine years, twice as vice mayor. Under the one interpretation mentioned above, Hartke would not have qualified to serve as mayor.

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