By Robert Sullivan

FAITH — The Faith Board of Aldermen are one step closer to increasing term lengths for future board members after a public hearing was held before the board meeting on Tuesday.

The aldermen unanimously passed a resolution both at the October and December board meetings announcing their intent to change terms for aldermen from two years to four years. The October resolution stated the town’s intention to seek approval from the state legislature for the change, but Representative Harry Warren told town officials when approached that he would prefer the change be handled at the town level, both for expediency and citizen input.

Locally passing the change would require a public hearing to allow for citizen feedback, so the aldermen were forced to pass the resolution a second time and reschedule the hearing because the December meeting was too far removed from the October resolution.

Nobody spoke during the public hearing either for or against the term changes. Nobody appeared at the December meeting to voice their opinion either.

The public hearing was step four in what is effectively a 10-step process to change the term lengths, said Town Clerk Karen Fink. Next is officially passing the ordinance, which can happen at the next board meeting. The ordinance would then require either a special election allowing for citizens to vote directly on the change or a referendum by petition, which allows citizens to file a petition with Fink within 30 days asking for the change to be put to a referendum.

The board members and town staff looked into extending the aldermen’s terms before the 2023 election cycle, but Fink advised them at the time that it was not possible for any changes to be effected before that election, so they decided to postpone any decisions until after the election.

“Two years, to a new person, doesn’t give you much time to learn within those two years. Four years, you’re informed and now you have settled in or whatever it is. It seems like two years comes so fast,” said Barger, during the prior discussion in July of 2023.

The aldermen have also expressed their desire to move to even-year elections, which they hope would both increase turnout as well as save the town money, with Town Attorney John Hudson, who also serves as the chair of the Rowan County Board of Elections, providing the members of the board with a rough estimate of $3,500 every election cycle.

However, changing the election years cannot be done through the same process as the terms, said Barger, who also reported that he believed it would need to be done legislatively.

Fink has confirmed in the past that if the term change and election date changes were passed as law before Faith’s next election cycle, in 2025, then the current board members would have their terms extended through 2026. The elected aldermen that year would then serve the town’s first four-year terms. If only the term changes were passed, however,