DA, Jeffco officials considering term limit change

JEFFERSON COUNTY – Colorado’s limit of two terms for District Attorneys is under question in the 1^st Judicial District.

District Attorney Scott Storey, elected to his second four-year term in November, is lobbying Jefferson and Gilpin county commissioners to ask voters to add a third term for District Attorneys. The 1^st Judicial District encompasses both counties.

“Its really not about me, its more about the position,” Storey said. “The position of District Attorney, I believe, should be three terms instead of two terms.”

If commissioners in both counties agree to refer the issue to voters, it would appear on November’s mail-in ballot. If not, Storey could petition to get the issue before voters.

Other elected officials in Jeffco might also set their sights on a third term if the idea passes muster, including Sheriff Ted Mink, who thinks three terms might be just right for sheriffs, as well.

But that would require a separate ballot question, Storey said.

Storey bases his case for three terms on the complexity of managing an office with a $17 million budget and 170 employees, 60 of them attorneys. 

“As prosecutors, our mission is to do justice, which can be kind of a difficult concept sometimes. There’s a lot of complexity just built into the job,” Storey said. “Add to that, you’re an elected official in a major county and there’s a learning curve to that.”

The first term, Storey said is adjusting to those challenges and designing a new game plan.

“The first four years you have to adjust to all of that and then, in the last year of the term, you have to start running” for another, Storey said.

“The second term, hopefully you’re starting to see what you are trying to accomplish,” Storey said.

For Storey, that includes a drug court, a program to protect kids against Internet predators and a critical incident response team for shootings involving police and another team that responds motor vehicle accidents that could involve criminal charges.

“I think if you have another term, there’s a track record you have established. So whoever takes over for you can help maintain the momentum,” Storey said. “But I am not saying we should get rid of term limits for District Attorneys, because I can see the value of it.”

Colorado voters imposed term limits on state officials in 1990. Four years later they added local officials to the term-limit list. Many of those limits have since been undone at the local ballot box.

Only three Colorado counties – Jefferson, Adams and Mesa – retain term limits for the Sheriff.

“I’m getting accused of trying to lead the charge for this thing and that’s not necessarily true,’ Mink said. “We just kind of thought ‘if it goes, we wouldn’t oppose it.’ I’m talking about the other elected officials, too.

“If commissioners want to put it on the ballot to extend, not eliminate, but to extend to a third term for the other elected officials, we would not oppose that.”

Mink said a shot at a third term might attract more people to politics.

“There’s a lot of good, talented people out there who could run for any elected office, but they are put off by term limits,” Mink said. “They think ‘in eight years, what can I get done? And then I’m out of a job.’”

Mink was appointed when former Sheriff Russ Cook resigned after his unsuccessful battle with alcohol became public.

Mink ran for the remaining two years of Cook’s term in 2004 and was won a full term in 2006.  His current term ends in 2010.

Storey took over from former DA Dave Thomas, after 16 years on Thomas’ prosecution team.

Thomas left office in 2004 after 14 years as DA, including three consecutive terms. Thomas won his first term two years before limits went into place. He served as DA two years after former Gov. Roy Romer appointed Thomas to replace DA Nolan Brown, who resigned in 1985.

The Colorado Supreme Court in 2004 rejected a challenge to term limits for district attorneys.