TERM LIMITS: LEGISLATURE, YES; CITY COUNCIL, NO

It has taken a while since term limits were imposed on members of the Missouri General Assembly and Cape Girardeau City Council for the effects to be felt, and more than a few lawmakers and city officials are questioning whether the limits are good.

It was in 1992 that Missouri voters amended the Constitution to limit the terms of state lawmakers to eight years, and Cape Girardeau voters changed the City Charter to limit the terms of councilmen and the mayor to eight years. At the same time, city voters created a ward system whereby councilmen are elected from specified districts instead of at large, as had been the practice for many years.

There is a push in the Legislature to change the law so lawmakers can seek additional terms. The latest of a number of attempts this session to weaken term limits failed in the Senate last week, but more efforts are certain to surface. This is because by 2004 all state lawmakers elected in 1992 or before will be forced out of office.

In the latest effort, state Sen. John Scott, D-St. Louis, tried unsuccessfully to tack on an amendment he says would give incumbents a way around term limits. Scott's amendment would have allowed incumbents who have served the maximum terms to seek re-election if they could gather enough signatures from registered voters to authorize them to run again. Any effort to do away with term limits, of course, would require a vote of the people.

On the city level, for the first time Cape Girardeau Mayor Albert M. Spradling III last week publicly criticized term limits during a council meeting when farewells were in order to two longtime councilmen, Melvin Gateley and Dr. Melvin Kasten. The mayor said: "Term limits are not what this city needs. It's one of the things that shouldn't happen." Spradling praised Gateley and Kasten and said they shouldn't have to quit because of term limits. He said he hopes voters someday will reconsider the two-term limit.

Attempts to end term limits on the state level likely will -- and should -- go unheeded. Missourians legitimately enacted term limits in hopes of preventing politicians from staying in office too long and becoming complacent and so powerful that abuses might occur. It is too bad the same limitations haven't been put on those who serve in Congress, where the temptations for abuse of power are even greater.

But it is a different matter in city government, where experience can be the greatest asset of an elected mayor and council. As Cape Girardeans have seen, the switch to the ward system has resulted in fewer candidates filing for the council since councilmen must live in the ward they represent.

The lack of candidates coupled with term limits shows that Cape Girardeau should do away with the ward system and return to electing a council at large.