If Bossier Citians really want to break the cycle of insider control over their city government, they’ll need to vote yes this Saturday on two ballot propositions that would enact the strictest term limits in the country, short of the U.S. presidency.

On Mar. 29, voters approved propositions limiting the mayor and councilors to three consecutive terms, effective with their current terms beginning Jul. 1 (reassumption for Chandler and three councilors). But on May 3, they’ll face two more propositions—the only items on the ballot—that go further: lifetime term limits of three terms, retroactively applied. That means Mayor Tommy Chandler and three councilors who’ve already served could run for office just one more time successfully, ever.

At first glance, voters may be temped to shrug off trooping to the polls just for these two items, reckoning that term limits, if less restrictive, already are in place. However, they should consider the case of current and outgoing GOP Councilor David Montgomery.

The theory behind the stricter version is that any service longer than 12 years, even if not all strung together, leaves too much opportunity for an individual to institutionalize himself into power in the city, if not turn his government service into self-enrichment and to the benefit of special interests. Montgomery’s two decades in office provide a cautionary tale.

Perhaps no local elected official in Louisiana has earned more money legally from local governments than has Montgomery. Through 2024 (with 2025 to go), he has made $3,395,155 selling insurance, personally and through his agency, to government entities in Bossier Parish – that we know of, because state law began forcing disclosure of income derived from governments by elected officials in 2009, starting with 2008. With one more report to go, he’s on pace to clear $4 million.

This is why, according to his 2024 disclosure that lists his reception of $222,595 from seven local governments, he is able to afford ownership of a dozen real estate parcels worth a minimum of $100,000 each, as well as sock away enough investment dough to pull in at least $100,000 in interest and dividends last year from about 50 different investments (blue chip equities with a few go-go names thrown in) worth at least $5,000 in each position, plus some treasury bills. It should be noted that as the universe of S&P 500 stocks, a reasonable proxy for his holdings, has a dividend payout of 1.27 percent, this implies these together are worth at least nearly $7.8 million.

Maybe he’s just the world’s best insurance salesman. But then why are all his sales tied to governments with a Bossier Parish footprint?

The likelier explanation is his political pull. Consider the Port of Caddo-Bossier: thanks to his swing vote in 2023, the Port stands to gain a taxpayer-funded waterworks project that Montgomery vociferously demanded expediting and approving. He has done business with entities connected to such appointments—or to contracts requiring City Council approval.

It’s hard to imagine a garden-variety insurance agent, unaffiliated with local political machinery, landing these deals.

But Montgomery did. Because he was in office. And crucially, because there was always the possibility that he’d stay in office and deploy formal political power as an elected official—or return to it. Take away the reasonable expectation that he would not– or could not– be in office some day, and there’s no reason to do business with him.

Under the just-implemented term limitations to the city charter, that reasonable expectation could exist even if a hypothetical councilor in this position served three consecutive terms, because then he could lay out a term and try again (maybe, for example, if previously elected in a district going for at-large, or vice-versa). Even forced out of office temporarily, such a figure remains a credible political actor—still worth investing in, still able to carry water for special interests.

By contrast, the stricter version on the upcoming ballot prevents this aggregation of power by an ability to move back into government after being forced out. Twelve years means twelve years—no comebacks, no lingering influence as a politician-in-waiting.

That’s why Bossier voters should strengthen term limits now. If they want a city government less vulnerable to self-dealing and better insulated from the long reach of entrenched political operators, they need to show up this Saturday and vote for both propositions.