A Sad Day For democracy In New York City

Just moments ago the political theater played itself out in City Hall and the Council voted 29 - 22 to pass an extension of the city's term limit from two to three terms. The people enacted the law through referendum and the majority of the Council selfishly overturned that democratic will. The Mayor assured Council members that the public would forget about this day by next year's election, but the view of the people from his throne is clouded by all of that money he has.

As the live-blogging by the New York Times and Its Our Decision showed, the people in the balcony were passionately against what happened here today. Cheers, boos and hisses were common depending on who spoke for the Mayor and who rallied for the opposition. The Daily Politics and the NY Politicker also covered the events. As the public learns more of how the Mayor ramrodded the bill through the Council with the aid of Speaker Christine Quinn, the less popular the subversion of the process becomes. Those that passed this had plenty of backroom deals made so that they could maximize their own self-interests to go against the people that elected them.

Of course the fight isn't over yet. Both State Assemblymembers and State Senators want to address this mattter as does members of New York's Congressional and Senatorial delegation with regards to the Justice Department. The Mayor's move was politically calculated to ignore the public and have fifty-one politicians go over the hundreds of thousands that voted for term limits. If they think that this is legitimate, they have another thing coming. The Bush Administration's DoJ might get Bloomberg's back, but an Obama Administration certainly won't. Democracy is an essential, nay, the essential ingredient of our society and it must be upheld, despite the terrible shame that the Council brought upon us today.

Heads will roll my friends, heads will roll.

Two New Twists To The Term Limit Saga

Now that we are a day away from the crucial vote in the City Council, three of the remaining twelve undecideds have offered up an amendment to the bill. Who knows if this will be successfully added, but Yassky, Brewer and Gerson want to make the vote about letting the people decide via referenda. They made the announcement earlier this afternoon.

From NY Politicker:

Three undecided City Council members—David Yassky, Gale Brewer and Alan Gerson—told reporters just now they’ll introduce an amendment to the term-limits legislation that would establish a charter review commission that could put term-limits to a voter referendum at the earliest opportunity.

The Council votes on the legislation tomorrow; the three lawmakers, who were previously undecided about how they will vote, declined to say whether they’ll support the bill in its current form.

All three said they believe it's better policy to allow city lawakers to serve three terms, instead of only two, but expressed reservations about overturning two public referendums with legislation in the City Council.

When asked if this amendment was simply a “fig leaf” to give them political cover with voters, all three shook their heads, and Yassky, said, “Absolutely not.” He went on, “I think that the right outcome is to change term limits from eight [years in total] to 12. I say that without hesitation. That’s in the best interest of this city.” But, Yassky added, “This is not a good way to do it.”

Yes, the issue here isn't whether term limits should be abolished, but who should do the abolishing. Term limits were enacted by the people twice and if there is really enough support to get rid of them, let the people decide that just as they had before. The Council should not be allowed to do this all by themselves at the behest of the Mayor.

Now even if this fails and the Councils goes ahead and approves this sham, there is a new hurdle being thrown up by Bill de Blasio, Letitia James and Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum. Since the Conflict of Interest Board denied them a favorable ruling in what is clearly a conflict of interest, they are going to the courts to block the bill. There are many interesting developments to this issue and plenty to come.

If you disagree with the Mayor and want an opportunity to express that to him, come to City Hall at 5:30 this afternoon and stand up for letting the people decide!