Allentown Mayor Ed Pawlowski is asking City Council to include the governing body and the city controller on a two-term mayoral limit question proposed for the November ballot.

City Council unanimously approved a bill on June 7 asking that a referendum question be on the ballot that would limit a mayor to a total of two terms in a lifetime. Pawlowski vetoed that bill and today offered his own version.

In a memo to Council, Pawlowski said he is opposed to terms limits. “We already have term limits; they are called elections. But, if we are to consider term limits for one elected branch of government, we should consider them for all elected branches.”

Pawlowski says he is very interested in learning about Council’s rationale for only offering to term limit the mayor. “Do you remember voting on city budgets and setting tax rates for the city? Do you remember voting to create ANIZDA? Do you remember voting to approve the concession lease of the city’s water and sewer utility system? How is it that you can vote to term limit the ability of a mayor to propose change without putting a term limit on the very people who have to vote to enact that change?”

Council is expected to take a vote to override Pawlowski’s veto tomorrow night. Pawlowski is asking Council to suspend its rules and also take-up his proposed referendum question at the same meeting.

Pawlowski is currently serving his third term. The new limit would not be retroactive.

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