WARREN (WWJ) - The Michigan Court of Appeals ruled on Friday that longtime Warren Mayor Jim Fouts cannot run for a fifth term.
The ruling rendered Fouts, who has been the mayor of the state's third largest city since 2007, ineligible for yet another term with the City Clerk ordering the 80-year-old's name be removed from the ballot.
Fouts was seeking re-election for a fifth time, despite limits in Warren that only allowed for three. Back in 2016, voters had approved a maximum of five, four-year terms for mayor, but in 2020, an amendment was added to change the term limits to three, four-year terms.
The decision reversed a Macomb County Circuit Court judge's opinion from March where Fouts had argued that the new limits did not apply to him because the amendment change did not address the years the mayor had served previously.
The new ruling takes immediate effect, with the judges calling for Fouts be disqualified.
Fouts said he will appeal to the Michigan Supreme Court.
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