MACON, Ga. — Before Macon-Bibb County became a consolidated government, district commissioners did not have term limits.
Now, they're limited to serving three, four-year terms, but it's a different story for the mayor, who only serves two terms.
"There was some conversation early on about, 'Should a mayor have a three-term limit as well, instead of two terms?" Mayor Lester Miller said. "I wanted to put that out to the public."
This week, Miller asked people online whether the county charter should be amended to provide equal term limits for both the mayor and commissioners.
He says he received strong feedback from a previous poll about running for governor.
"If four years is all I got left, I'm certainly going to look at some state positions, including the Office of the Governor," Miller said. "[I] got a lot of interest, some great positive polling for me, as both running as an independent, democrat and republican, which is something I think I'm very excited about being able to raise that gap in partisan politics."
Some commissioners say they see no issue in adjusting term limits, others are focused on other factors like staggering commission races.
Commissioners like Stanley Stewart and Elaine Lucas are hesitant about changing the mayor's term.
"I think there's room for change, I'm just not sure that this is the change that we need," Lucas said.
They're vouching more for a return to partisan elections for county leadership positions.
"I would love to see partisan elections again here in Macon, Georgia," Stewart said. "I would love to see a 'D' or 'R' beside your name, so we would know whether or not you are a Democrat or Republican, and I can work across the board with anybody."
Miller says 12 years in office could provide less turnover and more opportunities to carry out projects.
"It's important to be able to finish what you started, and not to have to rush things up and spend a lot of money really quickly to the detriment of the community just to get these projects done," Miller said. "If you know you got more time out there in the future, you can delay those projects out a little bit of time, knowing you can be able to finish those projects and save the county thousands and thousands of dollars."
Miller says he'd prefer to serve a third term as mayor before he tries to run for state office. He says the state legislature would have to approve changing the charter, and then pass a commission vote.
"In the end, I don't get to make that decision," Miller said. "It's a decision that's going to be made by this commission and the state of Georgia, and it's something that, either way, we'll be happy with. My primary preference is to be mayor of Macon-Bibb County as long as people want me to be a servant here, even if it was a third term."