Baltimore Voters Were CLEAR on Term Limits

Originally published in the Baltimore Sun on 5/27/2026

Baltimore voters spoke clearly in November 2022. By a commanding 72% majority, they approved Question K, enacting two-term limits for our mayor, comptroller and City Council members. That was not a suggestion. It was a mandate.

Now, less than four years later, members of the Baltimore City Council are once again maneuvering to put repeal before voters — hoping, perhaps, that fatigue or confusion will accomplish what democratic principle could not (“Baltimore committee weighs term limit repeal; residents blast ‘tone deaf’ council,” May 22). I am deeply troubled by elected officials treating the people’s verdict as a negotiating position rather than settled law.

I am a retired West Baltimore pastor and community leader who has walked these streets for five decades. I have watched generations of Baltimoreans grow cynical about City Hall precisely because power too often protects itself. Term limits were a rare moment of civic clarity - residents of every neighborhood and background uniting around accountability.

The council should honor that covenant, not relitigate it. Spend the remaining years of their terms delivering safe streets, quality schools and economic opportunity. That is the work the people sent them to do.

The voters of Baltimore are watching. So is history.

— Alvin C. Hathaway Sr., Baltimore