Term Limits Have
Widened Gene Pool
For City Council
By Henry J. Stern
August 29, 2008
With regard to term limits, we sent you an article yesterday evening, whose subject was "Save Our Seats." This was the headline:
TERM LIMIT DEBATE IS REKINDLED,
MAYOR SUFFERS VICTOR’S REMORSE
AS DAY OF DEPARTURE DRAWS NIGH.
If you do not have it before you and would like to read it, link to NYCivic492.
You may have the time or inclination over the Labor Day weekend to look into this matter further. If you do, you can link to any of several articles on the subject which we found interesting and have collected for you.
Aug 27, Sun, MAYOR: TERM LIMITS LENGTH IS A QUESTION FOR DEBATE. By Benjamin Sarlin. “Mayor Bloomberg’s dance around the city's term limits law shows no signs of ending, as he said yesterday that the question of allowing a third term is one that is worthy of debate.”
Aug 28, Times, IN SURVEY, COUNCIL MEMBERS FAVOR TERM-LIMIT CHANGE, By Michael Barbaro and David W. Chen, “A majority of New York Council members support – or are open to – overturning the term limit law that will force most of them and Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg from office in 16 months, according to a telephone survey conducted by The New York Times.”
Aug 29, Times, TOP BLOOMBERG DEPUTIES ARE SAID TO OPPOSE ANY PLAN TO SEEK A THIRD TERM. Internal Misgivings About Trying to Revise the Term-Limits Law. By Michael Barbaro, “As he weighs a bid to rewrite New York City’s term limits, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg is encountering an unlikely group of opponents: his own aides.
“Three of Mr. Bloomberg’s most trusted advisors – Deputy Mayors Edward Skyler, Patricia E. Harris and Kevin Sheekey – have confided to associates that they oppose revising the city’s election laws so that he can seek a third term, according to people familiar with the conversations.”
Aug 29, Sun, op-ed piece, By Randy Mastro, BLOOMBERG’S CHOICE: “Mayor Bloomberg risks irreparably tainting his brand by so blatantly reversing himself and ignoring the will of the people on term limits.”
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 in his first month on the Council - January 2002 - 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. Take George W. Bush as an example, or Congressman Patrick Kennedy of Rhode Island, son of the senior senator from Massachusetts. Numerous Udalls have held office in Western states. 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.
In Manhattan, we have what are called “trust fund kids”, whose parents have provided for their support through adulthood. For some in other boroughs, their fortune is their parents' public office, which they seek to inherit along with their DNA. 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.
#493 08.29.2008 844wds |