A Denton resident could serve up to 12 years on the City Council without a break by switching seats, under the final recommendation of a city committee.

The Term Limits Charter Review Committee voted 13-4 on Wednesday in favor of the proposal, which now heads to the council for review. The committee last month endorsed an 18-year limit on consecutive council service, but some members said they wanted to tighten the limit to increase the chances of voter approval.

Residents must approve any changes as part of a charter amendment election. A vote could come Nov. 3.

The proposal represents a compromise between committee members who favored no term limits and those who wanted stricter checks on entrenched power. Chairman Bill Giese opposes term limits and voted Wednesday against the change from 18 to 12 years, but he still praised the committee’s work.

“The purpose of the committee was to get a consensus,” Giese said. “It wasn’t to try and push one person’s agenda.”

The committee previously voted to recommend keeping the existing limit of three two-year terms and applying the limit separately to each of the council’s seven seats. The proposal includes no limit on the number of terms someone could serve in a lifetime, meaning a council member could serve up to 12 years by switching seats, sit out a year and run again.

The council includes four district seats elected in odd-numbered years and three at-large seats elected in even years. The mayor’s position is one of the at-large seats.

Committee member John Paul Eddy, a supporter of stricter term limits, said the proposal fell short of what he wanted.

“But it’s better than what we had,” he said, because it requires a break in service.

The city charter says the mayor and council members are eligible for no more than three consecutive two-year terms, but opinions differ over whether the limit applies per seat or across all seats.

City attorneys say past years of service do not count against council members who run for a different seat, including mayor, or sit out a term.

A group of residents sued the city over that interpretation last year, but a district judge dismissed the case over procedural issues.

Four plaintiffs have appealed the case.

The council created the committee in February in response to the lawsuit, which also sought to disqualify Mayor Mark Burroughs, Mayor Pro Tem Pete Kamp and then-Mayor Perry McNeill from the May 2008 ballot for alleged term limit violations.

Burroughs was a council member from 1998 to 2004 before unseating McNeill in last year’s mayoral race.

Kamp resigned in May 2008 with a year left in her third consecutive term in District 2 to take an at-large council seat.

McNeill resigned his position in the middle of his third term in District 4 to become mayor in 2006.

Also Wednesday, the committee asked City Attorney Anita Burgess to provide an opinion on whether the proposal would stand up to legal challenges. Four members were absent.

LOWELL BROWN can be reached at 940-566-6882. His e-mail address is lmbrown@dentonrc.com .