Sunday, May 30, 2010

Voting on term limits....again

From the NY Times:

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg will not be on the ballot in 2010, but the issue that many New Yorkers lambasted him over in the 2009 election very likely will be: term limits.

“We need as a commission to be heard this November,” Matthew Goldstein, the chairman of the New York City Charter Revision Commission, said on Monday night, during a hearing at Brooklyn Borough Hall.

Asked afterward to elaborate, Mr. Goldstein, who is the chancellor of the City University of New York, said, “I haven’t heard any commissioner opine that we ought to pass in November about term limits.”

The statement was hardly a surprise. After all, when Mr. Bloomberg decided in the fall of 2008 to upend the city’s term limits law (which had been approved twice by voters) to give him and other city officials a chance at a third term, he promised that a charter commission would revisit the issue. And when Mr. Bloomberg appointed the 15-member panel in March, Mr. Goldstein said that term limits would be one of many issues on the table.

Still, Mr. Goldstein’s comments represented the most definitive statement yet that term limits would be on the ballot this year — as opposed to next year or even in 2012, as some people have suggested. Mr. Goldstein also indicated that the commission was far from a consensus about what the term limits ballot question would be:

For example, should voters be asked to return to the old system of limiting city officials to two terms? Should voters be asked to make three four-year terms the standard? Should voters be asked to consider a multi-tiered system of term limits, like two terms for the mayor, and three for the City Council members and other officials? Or should any plebiscites be legally protected, so that future City Councils that wanted to emulate the actions of the “Bloomberg 29″ (as the Council members who voted to extend term limits in 2008 were derided by critics) would be barred from doing so?

14 comments:

Adolf Bloomhitler said...

Zee? I told you I'll be back!

NYC Educator said...

Maybe this time we should be honest and add clauses pointing out these rules are in effect only if billionaires and self-serving officials don't decide to override them.

Kevin Walsh said...

I won't even vote for or against, because my vote oin this doesn't matter. Next time a powerful mayor wants it overturned, it will be no matter what the electorate thinks.

www.forgotten-ny.com

Anonymous said...

Shrimps throughout history are dangerous:

i.e.
5' 7" Napoleon & 5' 6" Bloomberg!

They overcompensate for what (I'm sure) they don't have between their legs.

It's known as the teenie weenie syndrome.

Hey...where's the beef Mayor Bloomberg?

Oh...it's just a junior burger.

Anonymous said...

what a joke. Slush fund Christine Quinn belongs in jail

Anonymous said...

teenie weenie syndrome.

yep, but why make us all suffer for their lack of length?

Gary the Agnostic said...

How long until the ads pushing Bloomberg's reelection start to run?

Anonymous said...

teenie weenie syndrome.


Yes maybe but what he really has is a small brain and is intellectually bankrupt, pushing horrid architecture in parks, new awful development only knowing how to lie and use covert force to get his way and New York residents take it just fine for some reason?

Little bloomberg will be remembered in history for years to come like the ever expanding oil mess in the Gulf that will unfold over 30 years as bloomberg has a legacy of closing Fire Depts. and Hospitals that will take years to fix if ever.

Another bad mayor was Koch and he pushed a third term through also. And Guiliani tried as well.

Queens Crapper said...

There were no term limits back when Koch was in office; he won a 3rd term and was running for a 4th. Giuliani simply said he would stay in office a few weeks longer if it would help the recovery after 9/11.

Anonymous said...

We already voted and passed 2 term limits. Now we found this can be superseded by all those in power, without a vote by the citizens. This whole issue and process is a JOKE.

Anonymous said...

I wonder how many of our tax dollars will be wasted on this?

Anonymous said...

I wonder how many of our tax dollars will be wasted on this?

B I N G O ! !

Anonymous said...

How many bleeping times does the public have to vote on term limits!!!####!$$

Anonymous said...

How many bleeping times does the public have to vote on term limits!!!####!$$