Today, Councilmember Bill de Blasio continues our series of guest blog posts on the mayor's effort to extend term limits.
Bill de Blasio said, "In the past 15 years, New York City's voters have twice voiced their overwhelming support for enacting and upholding the law which limits elected city officials to serving two consecutive four-year terms in office. While the merits of term limits are debatable, the merits of democracy are not. It is unconscionable for Mayor Bloomberg and the City Council to work in collusion against the will of the people we purportedly serve. Any changes to the current term-limits law must and still can be decided by the people.
Voters could have an opportunity to decide term limits for themselves in a few short months - we should give it to them. Councilmember Letitia James and I have presented legislation calling for the creation of a Charter Review Commission to hold public hearings on this issue in every borough, and to put the issue to public vote in a referendum. In his address two weeks ago, the Mayor failed to mention that there is still time to complete this process, and that a special election and referendum will likely be scheduled for February of next year anyway to fill vacant Council seats.
We must stand together strongly in opposition to this Machiavellian plan to upend the will of the people for the desires of the few. This attempt to change electoral laws for one person makes a mockery of our entire legislative process. Our city has faced crises of all forms in the past, most notably 9/11 and the fiscal crisis of the 1970s, yet never before have we witnessed such complete disregard for the will of the people and such disrespect for our democratic process. No one person is supremely and solely qualified to run New York City; to claim otherwise is insulting to the voters who enacted term limits in the first place.
I urge all New Yorkers to make their voices heard by letting their Councilmember know that they want to have a say on this important issue. We must keep this decision in the hands of the voters where it belongs."
Bill de Blasio is a New York City Councilmember representing Brooklyn's 39th Council District and the Chair of the City Council General Welfare Committee.
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