City Councilmember Meghan Sahli-Wells – who is running for re-election in April — said the other day that when her second term expires, she will be gone.
Contentedly, this quintessential community activist assured that she will be willing to walk to the sidelines and clear space for a successor.
Not Councilman Jeff Cooper.
At the midway point in his second four-year term, he does not want to go away.
Professionally and politically, he is in his prime. Mr. Cooper says term limits should be expanded to “at least three terms.”
The seats of three incumbents on the City Council will be at stake in the April election. Ms. Sahli-Wells is the only officeholder in the race because Mayor Mehaul O’Leary and Vice Mayor Andy Weissman are ineligible because of term limits.
Neither one is anxious to go to the door. So far neither one has pushed back. There is no doubt that if term limits were killed tonight, both men would race for re-election.
Santa Monica Mayor Kevin McKeown, who recently addressed the Culver City Democratic Club, might be a poster boy for advocates of expansiveness.
For 17 consecutive years, he has been on the Santa Monica City Council.
“Changing the (City) Charter to at least three terms excites me,” Mr. Cooper said. “A lot of municipalities have done this. Very, very few municipalities took this limit of two terms that our city did back in the ‘90s.”
The banking executive insists there are pragmatic reasons for shucking the term-limits fad and joining the majority.
“With the spread of social media, public awareness has been raised,” Mr. Cooper said. “Many more people than before are into what we are doing.
“It just makes sense to change that part of the Charter.”
However, since no groundswell has been detected for Mr. Cooper’s viewpoint, there are positives to retaining the present ordinance.
“I don’t have to run again,” he said.
“And I don’t have to worry what people think about me.”
