Term limits for Hamilton County commissioners have yet to become codified after legislation for it didn’t get picked up.
In February, commissioners voted unanimously to try and send a private act – a law that would apply only to Hamilton County – to the state legislature. The law would have limited commissioners and the county mayor to serving three terms total. Commissioner Lee Helton, R-East Brainerd, spearheaded the proposal, but he said by phone that the private act didn’t get a sponsor before the 2026 legislative session was over.
The commission’s request for a private act came late in the game, when the session was already in full swing, Helton said. By February, the county’s various state representatives and senators are already fighting to get their sponsored bills through, he said.
“I didn’t want to try and get in there and fight against the stream on something we could get taken care of pretty easily the next time around,” Helton said.
The most important thing was getting the concept of term limits through the commission in the first place, he said.