Councilman John Mirisch alleges that the city is unlawfully blocking him from running for a fifth term. (photo courtesy of the city of Beverly Hills)

Current Beverly Hills City Councilman John Mirisch has filed a lawsuit against the city of Beverly Hills, alleging that the city is unlawfully blocking him from running for a fifth term on the City Council. The lawsuit seeks a writ of mandate compelling the city clerk’s office to accept his nomination papers to run in the June 2 election. The city has maintained that Mirisch is ineligible to run for office due to a term limit ordinance that limits council members to three terms.

Three seats will be up for election in June including that of Mirisch, Mayor Sharona Nazarian and Councilman Lester Friedman. The filing period for the election begins on Feb. 9.

In 2022, Beverly Hills voters passed Measure TL, which established a three-term limit for City Council members during their lifetime. However, in the same election where Measure TL was passed, Mirisch was elected to a fourth term in office. Measure TL indicated that a council member’s previous terms should be counted when determining when a term limit is reached.

But in 2012, then-California Attorney General Kamala Harris issued an opinion that stated terms served before a local term limit ordinance is passed do not count toward term limits.

“A term served on a town council that was served prior to the effective date of a local initiative term-limit ordinance may not be counted against the term limit imposed by that ordinance,” the opinion read.

In addition, California Government code 36502 states that “any proposal to limit the number of terms a member of the city council may serve on the city council, or the number of terms an elected mayor may serve, shall apply prospectively only.”

Mirisch has cited the opinion and the government code in his argument that he is entitled to seek another term.

“The heart of a functioning democratic government is the voters’ right to elect a candidate of their choosing,” Mirisch’s attorney David J. Carroll said in a statement. “And before any local government limits that right, there needs to be an extraordinarily compelling reason to do so. Here, it would be perverse for Beverly Hills officials to claim that prior terms served by a would-be candidate prevent him from running again, when the local ordinance the officials are relying on applies ‘prospectively only.’ When the city did not respond to our multiple requests for them to clarify their position on his expected candidacy, Mr. Mirisch regretfully had no choice but to pursue litigation to resolve this.”

City Attorney Lawrence Wiener responded to the lawsuit in a statement on behalf of the city.

“We are currently analyzing the lawsuit,” the statement read.

In addition to Mirisch, Friedman has announced that he is seeking re-election in the June race for City Council.