December 16, 2025
TO: City Council
REQUESTED BY: Craig Hayes,
APPROVED BY: Robert A. Johnson, City Manager
SUBJECT: Discussion Item on City Council Term Limits
RECOMMENDATION:
City of San Jacinto (“City”) staff recommends that the City Council receive this report regarding City Council term limits and provide direction to staff.
DISCUSSION:
Councilmember Sanchez has requested that the City Council consider whether to establish term limits for the City Council. The purpose of this report is to summarize the legal framework governing local term limits, identify the next regularly scheduled election dates at which a measure could be presented to voters, and describe policy considerations should the City Council wish to proceed.
California Government Code Section 36502(b) authorizes a general law city to limit the number of terms that City Councilmembers may serve. Two core requirements govern the adoption of local term-limits measures.
First, any local term-limits measure must be prospective; in other words, the measure may only apply to terms voted upon at the same election as the measure or at subsequent elections, and it may not apply to terms being served from prior elections.
Second, a term-limits measure must be approved by a majority of the City’s voters at a regularly scheduled election such as a statewide primary, a statewide general, or the City’s general municipal election. A measure may either be placed on the ballot by action of a majority of the City Council or by a citizens’ initiative petition signed by at least ten percent (10%) of the City’s registered voters. The last day for the City Council to place a local measure on the ballot is eighty-eight (88) days before an election. For the 2026 cycle, the statewide primary election is June 2, 2026, with a placement deadline of March 6, 2026. The statewide/municipal general election is November 3, 2026, with a placement deadline of August 7, 2026. Upon placement of a measure on the ballot, the City Attorney prepares an impartial analysis, and interested persons may submit written arguments for or against the measure for publication in the voter information guide as provided by state law.
If the City Council elects to pursue term limits, the measure’s substance is a local policy determination, with Cities typically considering several policy factors. One consideration is the length of the term limit. Two-term and three-term caps are most typical, although shorter or longer limits are legally permissible albeit comparatively rare. Another consideration is whether the cap should be lifetime or consecutive. Under a lifetime cap, once the limit is reached, the individual may not serve in that particular office again. Under a consecutive cap, once the limit is reached the individual must step down for a defined “cooling-off period” before becoming eligible for office again. Local measures often use two or four year periods. Here, given the City’s staggered two-year election cycle, one approach may be that, upon reaching the consecutive limit, an individual is ineligible to hold Council office until the next regular Council election, occurring at least two years after leaving office.
Another recurring issue is how to treat partial terms. Local measures vary, with some municipalities not counting any partial terms against the applicable limit but prohibiting additional partial service after the maximum number of full terms has been served (e.g., under a two-term limit, a member who has served two full four-year terms could not be appointed to fill the final year of a vacancy). Others count all partial terms toward the limit regardless of length (e.g., serving eleven months to finish a predecessor’s term plus one full term would meet a twoterm limit). Some municipalities adopt a hybrid approach, under which a partial term counts only in specified circumstances, such as when a resignation occurs with a defined amount of time, commonly two years or less, remaining in the term. For example, if an incumbent resigns with eighteen months remaining, the successor’s eighteen months would count toward the limit, whereas if the resignation occurs with three years remaining, the successor’s service would not count.
In addition, there is the ability to specify whether service in a term shortened by recall, criminal conviction, or forced removal counts toward the limit to avoid any appearance of “conferring a benefit” upon removal from office. For example, if an official is recalled two years into a fouryear term, the measure could state that those two years count as a term for limit purposes, thereby preventing the recall from extending the official’s overall eligibility for office.
Because the right to seek and hold public office is fundamental, courts construe term-limits measures narrowly and resolve ambiguities in favor of candidate eligibility. Even if there is not an intention to count partial terms or other categories of service, stating that intention expressly is recommended to avoid ambiguity during implementation.
If the City Council directs staff to proceed, staff can return with election resolutions to call the election and submit a term-limits ordinance or measure to the voters at a regularly scheduled election. The City Council would have to approve the resolutions, the ballot question, and the full text of the proposed ordinance or measure for submission to voters. The City Attorney would prepare the impartial analysis, and interested persons may submit written arguments for and against the measure for the voter information guide as provided by state law. All actions would need to be timed to meet the eighty-eight-day deadline for the June 2, 2026 Statewide Primary Election (March 6, 2025) or the November 3, 2026 Statewide/Municipal General Election (August 7, 2026).
If the City Council does not wish to proceed, staff will receive and file this report and take no further action.
FISCAL IMPACT:
There is no fiscal impact associated with receiving this report. If the City Council places a termlimits measure on the ballot, the City will incur election costs charged by the Riverside County Registrar of Voters. Generally, placement on the November general election ballot is expected to be less expensive than placement on the June primary election ballot.