[img]2283|right|Jeff Cooper||no_popup[/img]To make this a truly happy new year, City Councilman Jeff Cooper today has a special wish:
“Here is something that might be interesting to do,” he was saying. “We are one of the few cities around Los Angeles County that actually does have term limits.
“What is even rarer, hardly anyone besides Culver City imposes term limits after serving just two terms.”
Eight years and out has been the law in Culver City for more than 20 years, since the early 1990s.
The present City Council is heavily invested in term limits. Next year at this time, Andy Weissman and Vice Mayor Mehaul O’Leary will be entering their final weeks, ahead of the April election when three seats will be contested. Mayor Meghan Sahli-Wells is expected to seek re-election.
“I think we should be allowed at least three terms,” said Mr. Cooper, who is closing out the first year of his second term.
He has a theory on why term limits were introduced.
“Twenty years ago, the community was a lot less involved in politics than people are today,” he said. “There have been so many changes. Social media, for example had not developed, and now it is much more convenient for people to stay on top of what is happening.
“We had all the same old guys,” said Mr. Cooper, “and nobody knew what they were doing.
“Since people are much more active now, they know what their politicians are doing. If they don’t approve, they can easily get them out.”
In seeking to make the case for 12 years in office, the banker contended that “many of the projects we do take years. I think we should be allowed to finish what we started.”
