Standish could be taking a second look at municipal term limits approved by voters almost two years ago.

The Standish Town Council will hold a public hearing on the term-limit issue, and later vote whether to include a question regarding their elimination on the Nov. 8 ballot, at a meeting Sept. 13.

Last month, some councilors said term limits are not effective for Standish governance.

But Dan Kasprzyk, a leader of the citizen’s petition that put term limits on the ballot in November 2014, thinks term limits have been effective in bringing new faces and ideas to the council.

He said if the question of eliminating term limits is brought to residents this November, voters should be able to vote separately whether to eliminate term limits from the three municipal boards they apply to – Town Council, Budget Committee and School Administrative District 6 directors.

In 2014, Kasprzyk, then a member of the school board, started a citizen’s petition to introduce term limits for members of the council. After the petition succeeded and was put on the November ballot, Phil Pomerleau, a councilor at the time, introduced another measure calling for term limits for members of the budget committee and school board in addition to the council.

Voters approved both. Question 3, which limited town councilors to a maximum of two consecutive three-year terms, passed in a 2,562-1,700 vote. As a result, after serving either four successive years or two consecutive terms, councilors have to wait three years in order to run again. Pomerleau’s Question 4, which imposed similar limits for SAD 6 board members and Budget Committee members, as well as town councilors, passed 2,446-1,826. The amendment did not apply to members of the Planning Board, who are also elected in Standish.

The initiative to introduce term limits was a response to the “the council not listening to residents,” said Kasprzyk this week. The idea was that term limits would help bring new faces in town government with “fresh ideas.”

He said he would disagree with the idea that term limits are not working in the way residents intended.

“Ever since term limits were established, there has been changeover on the council, and people are running for council every single year,” he said.

The council has seen “new faces in there that you haven’t had in the past and new folks coming up with new ideas.”

Kasprzyk said he “questioned true the motives” of councilors “trying to push (the measure) through.”

He added that he does not think the town should have term limits for the Budget Committee and school board.

Greg Sirpis, a new member of the council elected in June, introduced the idea of eliminating term limits from the town’s charter at a council meeting Aug. 9.

Of 12 available seats on municipal boards and committees in June, only one position was contested, and a number remain vacant. For Sirpis, this is evidence that term limits are not working for Standish. Sirpis said not enough people are interested and available to run for these positions to make term limits a good idea.

When someone has worked on a board or committee for several years and has a lot of experience, “I don’t understand why we’re sending people down the road when we can’t get people to step up and fill these seats,” he said.

Sirpis said his plan is to make a “reasonable and compelling case” for abolishing term limits to the public at the Sept. 13 meeting, and leave the rest to the voters.

At the Aug. 9 meeting, Todd Delaney, school board member, said he is in favor of eliminating term limits for the School Board.

Delaney said given the board’s control over the budget (the $44 million school budget is roughly three-fourths of the town’s annual tax dollars), it’s important to have experienced people crunching the numbers.

He also pointed out that of the five towns in the school district, which includes Buxton, Limington, Hollis and Frye Island, Standish is the only town where School Board members can be termed out, which may put them at a disadvantage.

Councilor Isabelle Higgins said at the August meeting that she would support bringing the issue back to residents if it is presented as three separate questions for the different municipal bodies.

Higgins also said she supported bringing the order for a public hearing, but pointed out that the public supported implementing term limits in November 2014.

Residents wanted “new blood and different faces,” she said of the initiative.

The Standish Town Office on Route 35.