By MICHAEL SCHENKLER

I'd like to stop writing about term limits.

I really thought that the basic immorality of voting to change the law which was twice voted on by the people in order to keep oneself in office would clearly overwhelm the personal avarice and desires of term-limited City Councilmembers.

I know they are capable of all sorts of attempts at justification: it's good for the government; the people didn't know what they were doing; one person funded the effort; the sky will fall; yada yada yada. But, in the past when moral people had to face such a self-serving effort, ignoring the stated will of the people, such efforts of greed and farce simply ended.

Not so here.

Sadly, Mike Bloomberg, almost a hero to those of us to who believe good government is a real, achievable end of politics, has equivocated and not swiftly ended the effort which is so damaging to the people's perception of their elected officials.

We believe that the Mayor will ultimately put a stop to the self-serving term limit extension effort that has started in the City Council. His inaction is allowing those who advocate that the Council legislatively change the law to benefit its members without going back to the people to seriously damage themselves. The damage will be deep and long lasting. It will haunt self-serving councilmembers if they ever seek higher office.

The press - including this paper - good government groups, and people of good will everywhere will always cite a member's vote to stay in office, defying and denying the will of the people.

In the past, we called it a crime against the people -- it is nothing less.

To this writer, if this effort every came to a vote, it would be the number-one vote on a candidate's record to warrant our refusal to support their election. It is indeed more outrageous a concept than the 1999 New York State legislative repeal of the commuter tax that cost our City about a half -billion dollars annually.

Yes, there are issues that should not be forgotten.

An officeholder's ignoring the people's law, passed twice by referendum, and voting to change it for their own personal gain, should be in almost all cases reason to reject that candidate.

The people need to start expressing that sentiment. The people need to be heard not on term limits - because that is not the issue - but on Councilmembers voting to override the people's law and extend their terms in office without going back to the people.

The Bronx's Oliver Koppell has now stated that he will introduce such a piece of legislation into the Council. Remember his name - not as anything but a self-serving thief announcing plans to steal that which is not his. There will be others who lend support to his vile effort. We will record their names. The foolery will go on until the Mayor, or the Speaker, or other elected officials of good will and common sense put an end to it. And it will cause damage to those who let their personal greed overrule their sense of fair play as they disregard the will of the people.

Tony Avella, Joe Addabbo Jr., Jim Gennaro, John Liu, David Weprin, Eric Gioia and newcomer Anthony Como are the first to state clearly to this paper that they oppose any effort to change term limits without a vote of the people. We applaud them, for they will likely be scorned by those in the Council who place their individual needs above those of the people.

But it wasn't hard for these seven, and it won't be hard for the others who oppose Koppell and his overturn effort. It won't be hard because it is the right thing to do.

We ask the rest of the Queens delegation to contact us immediately and let us know where they stand. Would they support an effort to change term limits without a vote of the people?

The line has been dawn by Koppell.

Which side are you on?

I'm looking for some honorable people.

I'd like to stop writing about term limits.

MSchenkler@QueensTribune.com