The Charter of the City of Savannah vests all corporate rights, powers and privileges, and all duties, obligations and liabilities of the City in the Mayor and Aldermen; and the Board of Aldermen is composed of eight members, including two at-large posts. Currently, Section 2-101 of the Charter limits a Mayor to two consecutive four-year terms in office. However, the Charter imposes no similar limitation upon the Aldermen. 

Section 10-2104(a)(1) of the Charter provides that the legislative power granted to the Mayor and Aldermen shall not extend to any action affecting the composition, form, procedure for election or appointment, continuance in office and limitation thereon. The Mayor and Aldermen of the City of Savannah consider extending the limitation on terms in office to the Board of Aldermen to be in the best interests of the citizens of the City of Savannah. The Mayor and Aldermen are expressly prohibited from amending the Charter to enact aldermanic officeholder term limitations. However, the General Assembly is vested with authority to enact a local law amending the City’s Charter to provide for aldermanic term limitations and allow the Mayor and Aldermen of the City of Savannah to adopt a resolution requesting that the General Assembly amend the City Charter by enactment of a local law providing for aldermanic term limits. Specifically, the Mayor and Aldermen request that a new subsection (c) be inserted into Section 2-101 of the Charter providing as follows:

(c)  Beginning with the election of 2023, each alderman shall be limited to serving a total of three four-year terms in any one seat. An initial term of less than four years shall nevertheless be deemed a full term for purposes of this subsection. Any service as an alderman on the Board of Aldermen prior to the election of 2023 shall not be computed for such limitation.

Approval