MOORPARK : Council Votes to Stagger Office Terms

The candidate who gets the fewest votes of those elected to the Moorpark City Council next November will have to run again in 1994, the council has decided.

The council will stagger terms of future members by limiting the term of the least popular winning candidate to two years, rather than the usual four years. The two-year limit will last for only one term. The winner of the 1994 election for that council seat will serve the normal four-year term.

The council voted 5 to 0 last week to make the change because four of its five members will be up for reelection in November.

If newcomers win all four seats, there will be little continuity between the new and existing council, Councilman Roy E. Talley Jr. said.

Setting a shorter term for one of the four council seats will prevent the problem from occurring in the future, officials said. The coincidental expiration of four councilmen’s terms on the same date came about because of the election in November, 1990, of Mayor Paul W. Lawrason Jr.

Lawrason is the first mayor to be elected by voters rather than by the City Council. But he is up for reelection in 1992 because the new mayoral position carries only a two-year term. Previously, all five members of the council served four years.

In addition to Lawrason and Talley, Councilmen Scott Montgomery and Bernardo M. Perez will be up for reelection next year.

Councilman John E. Wozniak is up for reelection in 1994.