Betsy Gotbaum has reached out to New Yorkers across the city to get their opinions on the mayor's effort to extend term limits. Today, former Public Advocate Mark Green is the first guest blogger on the subject. Last Sunday, Green joined Betsy Gotbaum and Councilmemebers Bill de Blasio and Mark Weprin to support a bill requiring that any proposal to change term limits have an attached referendum for voters.
Mark Green said, "I believe that Mike Bloomberg is a good man who is being misled by ambition into doing something that is profoundly unethical.
First, it's profoundly unethical to run for office knowing the term limits rules, to agree that they're essential for 7 1/2 years, to say that it would be "disgraceful" to change them within a ter in office -- and then at the 11th hour to engage in a 180 degree about-face because you want to cling to office.
Second, it's profoundly unethical to veto voters by railroading a law through the council in three weeks. It can take three years to regulate horse carriages but only three weeks to regulate the electoral rules of New York City? It's sheer political chutzpah for the mayor to stall for 9 months appointing a charter commission to put a referendum on the ballot and then say that deadlines have passed so only a law will do. (There is an alternative -- a voter referendum prospectively, like the 22nd constitutional amendment did.)
Third, it's profoundly unethical and obviously self-dealing to prefer that he decision-makers here be incumbents trying to keep their jobs and pay-checks rather than voters themselves.
And fourth, it's profoundly unethical to win over the important support of Ron Lauder by promising him the public benefit of a seat on a future charter commission, as Lauder himself has reported. If a mayor had promised money for support, we'd all understand how corrupt that would be.
I believe that any change should require that the decision-makers should be voters weighing the public interest rather than political insiders weighing their self-interest. So I support the de Blasio-Weprin effort to put a referendum on the ballot in early 2009. I'm proud to be a part of a collation based on the theme -- Let the Voters Decide!"
Mark Green is the President of Air America Radio and the former Public Advocate for the City of New York.
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