SHARE Billy Patton

By Daniel Connolly of The Commercial Appeal

As a Collierville alderman, Billy Patton has often shown a willingness to challenge prevailing views. Now he's proposing a measure that could alter how power changes hands by suggesting term limits for the mayor and the town's five aldermen.

At the moment, Collierville elected officials face no term limits, other than the blessing of voters every four years and the natural limits imposed by the human life span.

Patton proposes that starting Jan. 1, 2017, candidates would face a limit of three four-year terms as alderman, then three four-year terms as mayor.

That's 24 years of government in all. And the clock would start fresh for Patton and the other current members of the Board of Mayor and Aldermen, the six-member board that runs Collierville government.

Patton said he didn't want to make the term limits retroactive because the new rules might force out some current members. Politically, that's just too high a hurdle, he said.

"Term limits is tough enough to get passed by a local body. And by grandfathering it in, it will prepare us for the future of Collierville, to where no families, no professions could control or could populate a board."

The measure would force vacancies in some offices from time to time, and that's a good thing, Patton said.

"When a position is an open seat, no one has the right to that seat, which would allow three, four or five individuals to run for that seat and all shake hands and say 'May the best man or woman win,'" Patton said. "Whereas whenever you have an incumbent sitting on a seat for 25, 30 years, the odds of him being unseated is very slim."

He said incumbents benefit from name recognition and the ability to raise money.

"Not only that, I think after a while you need fresh ideas," he said.

Perhaps the best example of a long-running politician in Collierville was Herman W. Cox, who was first elected to the town board in 1959, elected as mayor in 1975, re-elected again and again, and finally decided to stop running in 1999, after 40 years in local government.

The question of who runs Collierville matters more now than it used to. When Cox took office, Collierville was a sleepy country town — the 1960 Census estimated its population at 2,020. But by 2014, its population had grown to an estimated 49,000 and today's Board of Mayor and Aldermen controls a budget of more than $50 million.

Patton owns a big computer store close to Town Hall. He was first elected to the Board of Mayor and Aldermen in 2010 and won re-election in 2014. Members are on staggered terms, and though some of his colleagues are up for re-election this fall, Patton wouldn't be up for re-election until 2018.

He and Alderman Tom Allen sometimes find themselves on the short end of a 4-2 split on the board. The pattern held true this year when the pair voted against tax breaks for FedEx and manufacturer CCL Label. Patton says he sometimes votes against Allen, too, and tries to make decisions that serve the common taxpayer.

When Patton pitched his term limits proposal at an April 21 budget work session, some members of the board expressed skepticism.

"I don't see why it's necessary," said Maureen Fraser, first elected to the board in 2003.

The board members agreed to take it up later.

"I think there's gonna be some more discussion," town attorney Nathan Bicks said.

After a vote by the Board of Mayor and Aldermen, the measure would have to go to the state Legislature for approval, he said.

Patton predicts that if the board passes term limits law, other local municipalities would do the same.

Some local suburbs, such as Bartlett and Germantown, do not have term limits. In September, the Lakeland Board of Commissioners approved an ordinance that would create a limit of two four-year terms for local officials. The measure is scheduled to go to voters in a November referendum.

Memphis voters in 2008 approved limiting the mayor and City Council members to two-four year terms.