....September 4, 4:16 PM
 
 
 
Ending The Term Limit Change Discussion
By MICHAEL SCHENKLER

It’s never a dead issue.

The desperate members of the City Council, fearing an end to their perks, special privileges, big extra income, prestige, pension accumulation and ego gratification, just can’t seem to let go.

They don’t care what the people say.

They cling to the fantasy that someone – a white knight — will come along to keep them in office.

They whisper to their colleagues about seizing power by voting themselves the right to keep running for office.

Yes, some of them are desperate and will do desperate things to remain as members of the City Council.

They know the people have voted twice for term limits and polls show they will vote for term limits again if asked.

And so the Council whispers to overturn term limits don’t start until it is too late to ask the people.

They don’t seem to care that they damage themselves and government by trying to legitimize such a vile power grab. Any participation in the quiet effort to over turn term limits is a blemish om the fine record of service of many of the Councilmembers.

And they know that the only reason they got into office was because of term limits.

Their white knight – in this case Mike Bloomberg – doesn’t appear to be willing to sell out an exception tenure of governance – to extend his term or their terms and he knows where the people stand – he’s asked them by commissioning a poll.

Sure I’d like Mike Bloomberg to continue in public service – he has several good options to continue to serve and we encourage him to stay in the public sector – we need him.

Sure there are many Queens Councilmembers I’d like to see continue in public service and they too have options. As a matter of fact, the 12 Councilmembers who are term limited in 2009 have each either started campaigning, fundraising or discussing a run for another elective office:

State Senate: Joe Addabo Jr Hiram Monserratte, and Jim Gennero are all on the November ballot for the position.

Borough President: Peter Vallone Jr and Leroy Comrie are off and running. Helen Sears is considering a run.

Comptroller: Melinda Katz and David Weprin are both actively in the race.

Public Advocate: Eric Gioia’s campaign is well underway.

Mayor: Tony Avella’s hat is in the proverbial ring.

Undeclared: John Liu leads all Queens candidates in fundraising; however he has not indicated which office he is seeking.

Finally, James Sanders has talked to us about a number of options but is not a candidate at this time. We do expect to see him running, perhaps in two years.

So if elective office is the calling, there are opportunities. If public service is the career, almost any former office holder can get a government position which will enable them to continue to feed their family.

The private sector often offers even more -- lots more.

The bottom line is pretty simple: Elected officials talking about or plotting to extend their own terms in office continue to foster and expand the dreadful image the people have of their elected officials. The term limit plotting does a disservice to the committed group of Councilmembers who have served our borough and city well.

It should end once and for all.

Each Councilmember should come forward and announce clearly they oppose any Council legislative effort to change term limits without a referendum of the people.

I would encourage the next Mayor to propose, as part of the next charter revision, that any change in term limits of NYC elected officials that was imposed by referendum requires another referendum of the people.

No, Councilmembers should not ever be put in the position of lengthening their own terms. Such grabs for power belong in the movies and in totalitarian nations. Not here in our city.

We don’t believe it will happen here and now but want to eliminate the damaging discussion.

If there are any Queens Councilmembers prepared to help us put an end to this undemocratic effort, please call or email us.

Let’s end this divisive and ugly discussion.
MSchenkler@QueensTribune.com

 
 
Term Limit Debate Rekindled, As Departure Draws Nigh

By HENRY STERN

While most of the political world is immersed in the parties’ national conventions, some New Yorkers find themselves dealing with an old issue unexpectedly revived by Mayoral speculation: term limits.

The issue was supposedly settled by referenda in 1993 and 1996, when the voters of the City of New York, on Election Day, expressed their preference for a limit of eight years, generally consisting of two four-year terms, for elected officials in New York City government.

The term limits law went into effect with the 2001 elections, and about three-quarters of the Council membership turned over at that time, including Peter F. Vallone, Sr, who had been speaker for 16 years.

The class elected in 2001 will be ineligible to seek re-election in 2009, and that has led to many candidacies for other offices, with term-limited councilmembers seeking borough presidencies and the three city-wide offices: mayor, comptroller and public advocate. Four members are seeking seats in the state legislature.

Until recently, the matter had been considered settled, with Mayor Bloomberg and Council leaders saying they were committed to term limits. The mayor installed clocks in numerous agency offices, timing the countdown to December 31, 2009; today is Day 483. By that reckoning, 118 remain in 2008 (a leap year) and 365 more in 2001.

With the date of departure approaching, the mayor now says he has reconsidered the issue and has reportedly consulted newspaper publishers to obtain their approval of extending his eligibility. Business leaders are said to be urging him to run to maintain stability in government, presumably unattainable under any other candidate.

It is unclear at this time what will emerge from further discussion of term limits by the Council. The deadline for placing a matter on the ballot in 2008 was September 5, sixty days prior to the election on November 4. We note that the current agitation about Council action comes when it is barely too late for the Council to refer the matter to the public.

One could almost conclude that the timing of this change of heart was arranged to exclude the public from participation in the decision. Could it be that some public officials were more interested in extending their own tenure than in allowing the people who elected them to limited terms to decide the issue of whether they were eligible to run ad infinitum.

Mayor Giuliani made a similar effort in the aftermath of 9/11, when he proposed that because of the emergency, the election scheduled for that year should be postponed three months, with the new mayor taking office on April 1, 2002. The plan was rejected by Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver who held the mayor in low regard because of previous disputes they had over city-state issues.



Widened Gene Pool

This controversy is likely to bubble along for some time, as some Council members, like passengers on the Titanic or other threatened vessels, struggle desperately to escape from the rising waters. They need a rope to crawl off the sinking ship. As luck would have it, the two people who could hear their cries, the Mayor and the Speaker, have promised publicly for seven years to let the old barge sink, as the people of the province have twice voted. Although the Speaker does not oppose a change in the law, she has often said she believes such a change must come from the electorate, not from the Council itself.

It would require an embarrassing repudiation of seven years of public statements, now known as a flip-flop and possibly punishable at the polls, for the two to abort term limits just when the program is about to become effective by sweeping the flotsam and jetsam off the boat, leaving a leaner and cleaner ship with a new captain and dozens of fresh crew members. The better Councilmembers seek higher office, the less able return to their nonprofits or, God forbid, the private sector.

The irony here is that most of the current cohort of Councilmen and Councilwomen hold their seats only because their predecessors were forced from office in 2001 by the term limits law. In some cases, the new members are, literally, descendants of the old ones; Peter F. Vallone, Jr. in Queens, the former Speaker’s son, is the most prominent of the younger generation, which includes Diane Foster of the Bronx, daughter of her predecessor, Rev. Wendell Foster, and Erik Martin Dilan of Brooklyn, son of former Councilman (now State Senator), Martin Malave Dilan. Joel Rivera, elected Majority Leader at the age of 22 is the son of former Councilman (now Assemblyman and Bronx County Democratic leader) Jose Rivera and brother of Assemblywoman Naomi Rivera; Yvette Clarke of Brooklyn (since elected to Congress) succeeded her mother, former Councilwoman Una Clarke.

There is nothing illegal or immoral about children being elected to follow their parents in public office. It does, however, indicate the tight grip some Councilmembers hold over their gerrymandered districts, which they would represent in perpetuity if the Lord and the grand juries permitted it.

Term limits broaden the gene pool for councilmembers, allowing elections to be contested before a dynasty comes to a natural or unnatural end. Term limits free up seats more often for genuine, open competition. This could lead to a better, more representative City Council, rather than a patchwork of hereditary fiefdoms.

StarQuest@NYCivic.org

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Michael Schenkler can be reached via this contact form.