Although Palm Beach County voters approved a limit of two four-year terms for county commissioners, whoever Gov. Charlie Crist appoints to replace retiring Commissioner Addie Greene might end up serving more than 11 years.

Find out how after the jump…..

Greene is slated to step down next week for health reasons. There’s no word on when Crist will name a replacement, but he interviewed four finalists last week.

County voters in 2002 approved a referendum that was popularly understood as imposing an eight-year (or two-term) limit on a commissioner’s time in office. Actually, the law prevents a person from appearing on the ballot for the office of commissioner “if by the end of the current term in office, the person will have served (or, but for resignation, would have served) as a commissioner for eight (8) consecutive years.”

That means someone like Jeff Koons, elected in 2002, can’t seek a third term in 2010.

Greene was reelected last November to a term that expires in 2012. Crist will appoint a replacement to serve until November 2010, when there will be an election to serve the remaining two years of Greene’s term.

If Greene’s replacement wins the 2010 election, he or she will be eligible to run again in 2012. And if that commissioner gets reelected in 2012, he or she will have served more than seven years — but not the magic eight — and be eligible to run again in 2016 for another four-year term, the county attorney’s office confirms.

Tags: Addie Greene, term limits

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 21st, 2009 at 4:00 pm and is filed under Charlie Crist, Palm Beach County commission. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.