Friday, September 12, 2008

Tony Avella Comes Down On The Right Side Of Term Limits

Mayoral candidate and Councilman Tony Avella is known as a reformer and agent of change in the New York City Council. On the issue of term limits though, he wants things to remain the same unless of course the voters decide to do things differently. While no one wants to explicitly repeal the law, they are more than a few that are thinking of extending it. Avella's bill would put an end to that type of talk.

From The NY Daily News:

Council Speaker Christine Quinn is being put on the spot with warring term limits bills.

A bill by Bronx Councilman Oliver Koppell calls for allowing term-limited incumbents to run next year for a third, four-year term.

A second bill, from Queens Councilman Tony Avella, would bar any change without a voter referendum.

"If they write the bill for Koppell, they better damn well write mine [too]," said Avella.

With a little bit of legislative maneuvering, Koppell's bill can be sidelined while either Avella's can be adhered to or both could be discarded. Of course, the way things pan out has a lot to do with the politics that both currently term-limited Speaker Quinn and Mayor Bloomberg decide to do.

Quinn - who as speaker has the power to keep a bill that is written and presented to the Council from coming to a vote - and Mayor Bloomberg insist that they have yet to discuss changing term limits.

Bloomberg stoked the flames this week by vowing to veto any bill repealing term limits, but said he would "think long and hard" about legislation permitting term-limited incumbents, like himself, to run again.

Also facing limits are 34 Council members, including Quinn, who once opposed changing the law but now refuses to say if she would permit a vote on the matter.

Quinn, Koppell and Bloomberg probably wanted this to float in under the radar but it didn't work out that way for them. Now the question is how much public pressure has to be exerted before they back off from trying to change the will of the voters. If legislation is passed in this matter, Avella's bill is one that reflects the spirit of the original term limits law, not Koppell's attempt to tweak it so he and others can stay in office another four years.