Carson DA: Bagwell eligible for mayor term

A March 20 legal opinion addressed to Mayor Lori Bagwell and provided by the Carson City District Attorney’s Office maintained the incumbent mayor was eligible to run for office — and serve a full-term — under state term-limit provisions.

Bagwell authorized the release of the legal opinion, which was signed by Assistant District Attorney Daniel Yu. The opinion illuminates questions and answers about term limits when a local office-holder hasn’t served three full terms, like Bagwell currently has.

“Based on a thorough review of the term limit provision, relevant sources of legal authority and the application of rules of constitutional construction employed by Nevada courts when interpreting the meaning of constitutional language, it is the firm opinion of this office that you are eligible for reelection to another term as Mayor,” the document states.

The opinion points to 1994 and 1996 when voters, statewide, approved an amendment to the Nevada Constitution setting term limits for offices of state or local governing boards.

Article 15 section 3(2) of the Nevada Constitution states: “No person may be elected to any state office or local governing body who has served in that office, or at the expiration of his current term if he is so serving will have served, 12 years or more, unless the permissible number of terms or duration of service is otherwise specified in this Constitution.”

“Since the addition of this amendatory language to the Nevada Constitution, the Nevada Supreme Court has issued rulings in only a handful of disputes involving term limits,” reads the DA Office’s opinion. “While these cases involve peripheral issues, none of them address the very specific circumstance of whether a person is eligible for reelection to office when that person has not yet and will not have served 12 years at the end of his… current term, but if reelected to office will exceed 12 years of service by the time the next term is completed.”

As noted in the DA’s opinion, the Nevada Supreme Court found term limits apply to both the mayor and council members on a city board. That specific case involved termed-out council members in Reno who were then precluded from seeking the mayoral office.

Examining the Carson City Charter, the DA Office’s opinion stated, “Accordingly, we conclude that art. 15, §3(2) of the Nevada Constitution applies equally to both your past terms as Ward 3 Supervisor and your current term as Mayor, and therefore all of your service years count towards the 12-year term limit.”

But Bagwell, who was first elected a Ward 3 supervisor in 2014, can serve another term if re-elected because she will only have served 10 years at the end of the current term, the DA’s Office found.

“The plain language only precludes a person from being elected to a subsequent term if 12 years have already been served or will be served when the current term has ended,” reads the opinion. “At present, you have not served 12 years. Additionally, your current term as Mayor expires in January 2025, at which time you will only have served a total of 10 years as both Ward 3 Supervisor and as Mayor. Because the plain language of art. 15, §3(2) does not preclude a person who has served less than 12 years in the same office from being elected to a subsequent term, it is the opinion of this office that you are eligible to seek reelection as Mayor of Carson City in this year's upcoming election.”

Addressing if Bagwell would have to leave office upon 12 years of service, the DA’s opinion stated: “Similarly, the provision cannot be interpreted to mean that even if it does not preclude a person from being elected to a final term under this circumstance, that person would be required to leave office once he or she has served 12 years regardless of whether there are remaining years to be served before the term is completed.

“Requiring fragmented or fractional terms would likely tend to cause legislative chaos at both the state and local levels of government by affecting quorum and continuity, and simultaneously undermine the electoral process because voters would have no way of knowing if they are electing candidates to partial terms. Nevada courts would not interpret the term limit provision in a way that would lead to an absurd result such as this.”

When she was a supervisor, Bagwell clinched the mayoral seat in the 2020 Primary Election, winning more than 50 percent of the vote. In the 2024 Primary Election, Bagwell won approximately 46 percent of the total vote and moved onto this November’s general election with challenger Jim Shirk, who won approximately 31 percent of the vote.