By Linda Taaffe

Incumbent Francis La Poll threw his name into November’s Los Altos City Council race Friday, just minutes before the filing deadline, City Clerk Carol Scharz confirmed. La Poll is the first candidate to seek a third consecutive four-year term since the council put a voluntary policy in place to limit council terms in 1978 before state law allowed cities to impose such constraints legally. Every councilmember has voluntarily honored the policy since the city established it.

A law that La Poll moved to approve in 1999 could make him the last candidate to serve three, four-year terms if elected.

According to minutes from the May 25, 1999, council meeting, La Poll made the motion to approve the first reading of an ordinance that would legally prohibit councilmembers from serving more than two consecutive, four-year terms pending voter approval. The council unanimously agreed. Voters overwhelmingly approved the law by a 76 percent vote.

Councilman King Lear pushed to put the law in place in 1999, saying it would help save the city from future problems.

“We can all imagine that someday someone will run for a third term to let the voters decide whether the continued service of the incumbent is more important than the policy. This could be a divisive issue for the city,” he said.

The law doesn’t apply to current councilmembers whose second terms are up this fall, city attorney Marc Hynes confirmed prior to the election filing period.

The two-term limit applies to those elected in 1999 and after, he said. Any terms served prior to 1999 would not fall under the law. An incumbent running in 1999 who served the term beginning that year would be able to serve another term in 2003, he said.

Incumbents Kris Casto, Lou Becker and La Poll won their second terms in 1999.

Casto and Becker did not file candidacy papers for a third term.

“I will honor the two-term policy,” Casto said earlier this year. “That’s what I ran under. I believe the term limitations should apply to us. When residents voted, that’s what they expected.”

La Poll was unavailable for comment Monday.

Candidates Valorie Carpenter, David Casas, Christopher Nicholson, Ron Packard, Curtis Cole and Stephen Smiley have filed candidacy papers. Jeannice Samani and Jeffrey Martin had taken out papers but had not filed last week. The filing deadline for non-incumbents has been extended until 5 p.m., today.