(Editor’s note: This report has been corrected to say that no public hearing has been scheduled and that the city attorney is drafting a plan on extending the terms of council members and the mayor to four-year, staggered terms.)

Lengths of future terms for members of the Fayetteville City Council  and the mayor may be extended in the coming weeks.

The council voted during a work session Monday to direct City Attorney Karen McDonald to research and draft a plan to extend term lengths from two years to four years. The plan will be considered by the council on Monday, and, if approved, a public hearing will be scheduled on the issue. 

“What took place was a consensus vote to direct the attorney to research and draft up a resolution of intent and bring that back to council,” said Loren Bymer, the city’s marketing and communications director.

If the council approves the plan Monday, it only puts the issue before the public for feedback at a hearing on April 10. The City Council would decide after the hearing whether to extend the length of the terms.

Council members and the mayor are currently elected every two years. If the terms are eventually extended, council members and the mayor would serve staggered, four-year terms, meaning some seats would be on the ballot one year and others in the next election, according to the resolution of intent drafted by the city attorney.

The changes would require the mayor and four council members to be elected to two-year terms in the next municipal election this November. The remaining seats would for four-year terms. In the elections afterward, all seats would be for four-year terms, according to the resolution.

If the term extensions are eventually adopted, the details of this transition phase must be determined by the mayor and City Council prior to final adoption of the extensions, according to the resolution.

The changes would apply only to future elections. The terms of current council members would stay at two years.

Two council members, Mario Benavente and Kathy Jensen, voted this past Monday against proceeding with any action on extending terms.

Council member Derrick Thompson presented the measure to the City Council. He said four-year terms would help with long-term planning and decrease the risk of abrupt changes in the council makeup.

“We run the risk of having a new board every election cycle, including the mayor,” Thompson said. “This will cause havoc for a city this size, if that was to happen.”

In 2018, the issue was put before voters in a referendum, and nearly 65% of voters rejected the measure.

When Benavente asked Monday why the council couldn’t put the proposed change on the ballot in another referendum, Thompson said, “Because we don’t have to.”

Thompson said that the public hearing would give city residents a chance to have their say on the proposal. 

“Everybody will have an input on how we move forward,” Thompson said.

He said he could fill City Hall with people from his district who would support the plan, but he added that he wants to hear from people who live in other districts.

Jensen, who opposed the measure, said constituents in her district are against term extensions.

“I know what my district has told me over and over again, so I’m not going to be able to support this,” Jensen said.