Does June 15, 2017 (7/8 PMish) through Dec. 31, 2018 count as "18 months or less" re: term limits?

[Kevinstat]

Okay, I've pretty much filled in all of what I would imagine would be the legally relevant details in the run-on question above, but I'll also post some links below:

Augusta City Charter, Article IV (Board of Education) (see Sec. 1, 2nd ¶)

Minutes of the June 15, 2017 Business Meeting of the Augusta City Council  (Notice who finished third in the special election for Board of Education, At-Large and the large number of blanks (all four candidates were write-in candidates).  A Special Business Meeting held shortly before that meeting adjourned at 7:02 p.m., so the regular meeting couldn't have started at 7:00 p.m. as the minutes state.)

Augusta Board of Education Agendas & Minutes (only covers full board meetings; committee meeting agendas and minutes are on pages for those committees).  The Special Business Meeting on June 19 consisted of just an executive session, but there were unanimous votes to enter and exit from executive session and to adjourn.  There appears to have also been an informational "workshop" on June 21.  There was a regular Business Meeting of the BoE on June 14 the day between Pia Holmes being elected and her being sworn in.  The first regular BoE Business Meeting after she was sworn in was July 12, 2017.

Plus some articles covering her elections in 2017, 2018 and 2021, where you can see who holds an At-Large seat that is up for election at the same time and in the same contest as her seat.

I'd be interested in hearing what people's thoughts are on this.  I think Pia Holmes is a great board member, and I'd love it if the charter amendment had been sent to the voters when the city charter was reviewed by the City Council in the spring of 2018 replacing the "18 months or less" with a June 1 middle-year election cutoff (I proposed either June 1 or July 1, but the city attorney thought the existing language was clear), but I am not sure whether she should legally be allowed to run for a third full term (fourth term overall) in 2024 when her current term expires.  My term's also up then, but at this point I think it's unlikely I'll run again (I had to have my arm twisted a bit to run again last year).

[Sestak]

Eighteen months is eighteen months exactly; 18 months beginning on June 15, 2017 ends on December 15, 2018. If they wanted the other interpretation it should have said "less than 19 months"; I don't think it makes any sense for those terms to have the same meaning.

[minionofmidas]

The way you describe it I'd agree with Sestak. Might be worthwhile to doublecheck and  triplecheck for relevant precedent from elsewhere in the state though. (And perhaps to check what kind of judge a potential court case might end up with. A hem.)

[Schiff for Senate]

I don't know much about these things, but I'm 99% sure it does count as more than 18 months, for the reasons Sestak gave. If not, it should.

[jimrtex]

There may be something in Maine statute that defines what a month is. This might only come up in places where there are three year terms, and half a term is less than a year.

The Houston city charter says that more than half a term counts as a full term for term-limit purposes, but there the term is four years.

The term of office may begin on the day of a special election. Just because the votes haven't been counted and canvassed doesn't mean that the voters haven't chosen who will serve.

[muon2]

My experience is that it can go either way depending on any statutory definition and court rulings. When there is no statutory definition, a court may rule that if the legislature intended a fixed number of days in advance they would have said so. For instance, 4 months ahead of a spring primary would have a different number of days than 4 months ahead of a general election. If a court has determined that a month is not a fixed number of days, then month could mean the number of whole or partial months ahead of the month in question. Compare this to a statute setting a fixed number of days in advance that is rarely construed to be an exact multiple of 24 hours, but just the number of whole or partial days.

[Torie]

Being sworn in on June 30 or before is more than 18 months, so termed out. in order to not be termed out, the language would need to read less than 19 months. It does not. Months are calendar months, so the period would vary depending which months were involved. Promissory notes often state that all months are deemed to be 30 days, in which event the term "months" becomes a term of art, and you can get nicked for some additional interest charges.

"(b)   Interest under this Note shall be calculated on the basis of a 360-day year consisting of 12 months of 30 days each (30/360 basis)"

[Kevinstat]

Thank you all for your replies.  Sounds like at least a stronger argument could be made for Pia Holmes being termed out at the end of her current term (although she's still in the first year of that term now) than for her not being termed out.  What may make people assume they're not termed out in that situation (I know Pia had assumed that before I mentioned that she had served 18 months and part of a 19th in her initial term, and someone else in a slightly different but similar situation made the same assumption back in 2018; it turned out a City Charter amendment to allow people to serve up to 3 terms as a regular BoE member and then 3 terms as Chair made the question of whether the then-Chair's initial 18 month-term as a regular BoE member counted as a full term moot)...

What may make people make the opposite assumption that most make here when I present the facts is that special elections in June are sometimes colloquially spoken of as being for 6-month, 18-month or 24 30-month (haven't had any of those recently; you'd hope someone wouldn't resign early enough in a 3-year term for there to be a special election in June of the first year of the term; we did have a first-year member resign in May of this year when she accepted a position in the City Clerk's office, but the election for her seat will presumably be in November) terms, while those in November may be thought of as being for 1-year or 2-year terms even though the people elected to fill a vacancy in November will be sworn in sometime that month, so the November "special" municipal elections are actually for a 13+ month or 25+ month term.

April 2, 2023 edit: Why did I think 2 1/2 years was 24 months?  I was writing a letter to the City Council about this quandary, since Pia Holmes's second full term will expire at the end of next year, and there was a recent instance of confusion when our now-former Board of Education Chairperson accepted a new job with a long commute and couldn't serve out her term but had hoped to serve until a successor could be elected and sworn in, but was informed to her surprise that she had to resign by mid-February in order for there to be a special election in June (otherwise there probably wouldn't have been one, as her term expired at the end of the year), when I realized this error.

[Kevinstat]

I'm finally getting around to emailing the City Council and various city officials, including our City Attorney, about this now, so that there won't be a surprise next year (there was just another surprise that I mentioned in the paragraph I added to my last post).

[Kevinstat]

The question has now seemingly been definitively answered, by the City Clerk last Monday (and I imagine the City Attorney would have weighed in had he disagreed).

Good afternoon Kevin,

Regarding the tenure of Pia Holmes, she was elected on June 13, 2017 and sworn in to take office on June 15, 2017. Using the sworn in date, her actual office time would be 18 months and 17 days making her over the 18 months and into the 19 month by 17 days. That would be considered her first term per the city charter.

Pia Holmes, Bd. Of Ed., At-Large
June 13, 2017 [election date]     June 15, 2017 – Dec 31, 2018     (First Term)
November 6, 2018 [election date]     Jan 1, 2019 – Dec 31, 2021     (Second Term)
November 2, 2021 [election date]     Jan 1, 2022 – Dec 31, 2024*     (Third Term)


Hopefully this information [is] helpful. Please let me know if you need any further assistance.

Best regards,

Kelly J. Gooldrup, CCM
City Clerk / Registrar of Voters
Tax Collector
Notary Public / Dedimus Justice
City of Augusta
[Clerk's office address and hours of operation]

The asterisk presumably refers to this being the last term Pia Holmes is eligible to serve before taking a break.  For partial terms that don't count toward term limits the notation "(Filled vacancy)" is used (I saw a table in the same basic format given by the Clerk's office to a local non-partisan civic engagement group I've been involved with in the past back in 2021).

Pia told me in reply to this (I had included her in my email, and she seemed appreciative of my asking the question) that she wasn't planning on running again, so I may have helped her avoid proverbial arm-twisting to run again... and increased the likelihood of that being applied to myself.  But at least now people are clear (or can easily be made clear) what is what regarding who is termed out next fall (no one else will be, on either the Board of Education side of the Council/Mayor side, although the Ward 1 City Councilor is termed out this fall).