Rapid City's mayor and council members currently serve two-year terms and there has been talk to lengthen those terms to three or four years. The council decided to take action by modifying an earlier proposal and suggesting increasing the terms to three years.

Jerry Wright says, "I think it would give them more time to dedicate themselves to the duties of their office, it would give them more time to learn their job, to learn the staff, and the mechanism, chemistry and so forth of this community."

Charity Doyle says, "For the sake of compromise just to see what this ordinance could look like, knowing that second reading we still retain the obligation or right to kill it if we feel so moved. I will go ahead and support betting this and seeing what it looks like."

If approved, the term length change would take place in 2013 for the mayor and 2014 for council members. The issue now goes back to the Legal and Finance Committee for a second reading.

Tessa Thomas