Onondaga County Legislature Democrats have proposed limiting the number of terms a county executive can serve to three.
The proposal would require a change to the county charter. Under county law, any charter change would need to be passed by the legislature, signed off on by the county executive and then passed by a majority of voters during a referendum. If the county executive chose not to sign off on the change, the legislature would need to pass the measure with a supermajority.
Onondaga County Executive Ryan McMahon in a text said members of the legislature had not consulted him. McMahon said it “certainly seems political” as the county comptroller, currently a Democrat, was not listed in the law. He declined to comment further.
The change would limit county executives to three consecutive four-year terms. No time served as county executive prior to 2027 would count toward the limit, meaning that McMahon could serve at least two more terms.
“We’re just trying to make our county government as transparent as possible,” said Majority Leader Nodesia Hernandez, who is sponsoring the legislation.
McMahon is the county’s fourth county executive since the position was established in 1962. The three previous county executives served an average of about 19 years — or just shy of five terms.
The idea to limit the number of terms a county executive can serve had come up previously when the county legislature imposed term limits on itself last year, some Democrats said. Democratic legislators had held off on proposing the change until the race for county executive was closer.
“Now he’s up for re-election,” said Hernandez.
The legislature is also interested in limiting the term of the county comptroller, Hernandez said, but they cannot do both in the same local law. They would limit the sheriff and the clerk but those limits aren’t under their jurisdiction, Hernandez said.
The proposed charter change was one of three set to be talked about by the legislature’s Ways and Means Committee this month. The other two address how the county will redistrict and how it will fill legislature vacancies.
“I’m happy to see them moving forward,” said Legislature Maurice “Mo” Brown, chair of the Ways and Means committee. “Hoping we can make these common sense reforms less contentious than last month.”
The legislature has a number of other charter changes in the works, Hernandez and other legislators have said.
For a referendum to appear on this November’s ballot, the charter changes need to be given to the board of elections by Aug. 3. By bringing the bill to the floor in June, the legislature will give itself time to counter any potential vetoes before then, Hernandez said.
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