Term limits’ limitations
April 8, 2008
More than two-thirds of the City Council will be gone at the end of 2009 due to term limits. With that kind of job security, it’s no wonder members plot their next career moves even before their last election.
“We have seen Council members maneuver for their next elected opportunity at the expense of paying attention to their duties,” complained Dick Dadey of the good-government group Citizens Union.
“How many voted on congestion pricing because they were concerned about who they might be facing as opponents in 2008 or ’09?” he asked. “Did they decide on the merits or on considerations of their political future?”
City Council members can serve only two terms, which means 36 of them are now wondering what they’ll be doing come January 2010. Many of the 51 legislators are already raising cash, though only five have declared what office they’ve set their sights on.
Originally promoted as a reform, term limits were opposed by many good government groups when ballot initiatives were approved in 1993 and ’96. Dadey would like to see the effects of term limits studied by the next city charter revision commission, which Mayor Bloomberg is about to appoint. “It’s not all the reform it was made out to be,” he said.
“Elections are the best term limits,” added Doug Muzzio, a professor at Baruch College. “But voters are often denied meaningful choices. It would be nice to dynamite out some of the state Legislature.”
Source: AMNY
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