A two-term member of the Rockville City Council says he will not seek re-election in November.

John Britton, 56, will end a decade-long history of involvement in city activism and a four-year stint on the council.

He cited personal and professional reasons in a statement released Friday. He declined to comment further.

He said he has not ruled out trying to run for office in the future, only this year.

“Just nothing in the short-term,” he said.

First elected to the council in November 2007, Britton started his volunteer efforts in the city as a commissioner on the Rockville Cultural Arts Commission in 2001. He was next appointed to the Rockville Planning Commission, a position he held from 2002 to 2007, serving as chair of the commission in 2005.

Britton said he feels he has support in the city and is proud of his time as a public official in Rockville, pointing to a major re-writing of the city’s zoning code he oversaw as Planning Commission chair and then voted for as a councilman two years ago.

Piotr Gajewski is the only other incumbent city councilman to have served as long as Britton. Gajewski is vying for the mayor’s seat against Phyllis Marcuccio, who has held the job for one term.

Britton is the only incumbent who has said he will not seek reelection this year.

Former councilman John F. Hall Jr., Compensation Commission chairman Tom Moore, Planning Commissioner Dion Trahan and longtime city boards and commissions member Virginia Onley have said they will run for a council seat. Moore and Onley ran unsuccessfully for a council seat in 2009.

Britton is an environmental law attorney and a managing partner of the Washington, D.C.-based firm Schnader, Harrison, Segal & Lewis, LLP.

aruoff@gazette.net