Extension of Term Limits on Council’s Table
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The City Council is leaving open the option of extending term limits, even though New Yorkers have twice voted against such a move. Speaker Christine Quinn, after delivering a breakfast speech to the Association for a Better New York yesterday, during which she outlined proposals to reform the budget process and increase government transparency, told reporters that the council hasn’t “taken a final decision yet on what we’re doing on term limits.”
“The discussion on term limits is something that has happened internally, off and on over the past 20 months,” she said. When asked about the referendums on term limits in 1993 and 1996, Ms. Quinn said they are “relevant to the conversation.”
Nelson Warfield, a spokesman for Ronald Lauder, who spent about $4 million on the two referendums, said the businessman, philanthropist, and son of cosmetics magnate Estee Lauder is committed to defending term limits and the will of the city’s voters “by all means necessary.”
“He’s fought for this twice and he’s not a man who gives up a fight,” Mr. Warfield said. “Perhaps those who are appalled by the prospect of finding another job should consider a new line of employment, because voters are pretty central to the life of a politician.”
City officials are allowed to serve two consecutive terms, but former council members are not specifically barred from running again. Thirty-six council members face term limits in 2009 and many are planning to run against each other for citywide offices or president of a borough.
Ms. Quinn commissioned a survey on term limits in 2006 that found only four in 10 New Yorkers were in favor of having council members serve more than two consecutive terms.
“Although I’m not a supporter of term limits, I do have faith in New Yorkers, and have faith that they will send us people as good to all of the offices that will open in 2009,” Ms. Quinn said.
Mr. Bloomberg ducked a question yesterday about the term limit comment from Ms. Quinn, who has become one of his closest political allies. In the past, however, he has railed against efforts to overturn voter-supported term limits.
Sounding much like a mayoral candidate during her speech, Ms. Quinn laid out several budget and government reform objectives:
• The next mayor should be required to disclose the city’s monthly tax collections and spending numbers.
• The comptroller should be charged with reviewing and reporting on the city’s borrowing and keeping an eye on its short-term debt. • Albany should allow the city to create a rainy day fund. • Public entities, such as the Health and Hospital Corp., should report regularly to the council and the mayor.
Ms. Quinn also announced that council sponsors of capital budget projects would no longer be anonymous, and that Mayor Bloomberg has agreed to require that city agencies provide more detail about how money is being spent.