Second in a series.
Re “Weissman Pushes Back Against Term Limits”
Speaking of Culver City’s two decades old term limits regulation, Vice Mayor Andy Weissman, an opponent, conceded a point with a tantalizing fishing line attached.
“Eight years, two terms, may be the right amount of time,” Mr. Weissman said. “It is an arbitrary amount, and I am not positive how that came about.
“As recently as the last election, the city of Los Angeles, which has term limits, the citizens voted to extend term limits,” a move Mr. Weissman applauded.
There are no term limits at the federal level, the vice mayor noted with approbation.
“But there are at the state level,” he said.
“My personal feeling is term limits are counterproductive. As people are becoming comfortable and familiar with the terrain of being an elected, you already are running for re-election. Then you are gone.
“Personally,” said Mr. Weissman with emphasis, “I think eight years is artificially short.
“Fundamentally, as I said before, it should be a voter decision, not necessarily one that should be etched in stone in the City Charter.”
The vice mayor, who will be term limited next April, was briefly philosophical about it.
“We have got it, so we live with it.”
(To be continued)
Andy is correct. What term limits has created is a bunch of recycled politicians. Look at L.A. City Council. It looks more like the State Assembly that a City Council. At least in L.A., the voters changed the limits to 3 terms, allowing the council members to actually do a couple of years work before they were looking to move on up. The citizens did a disservice to their communities by forcing term limits. It has the unintended consequence that is causing items like bidding on the Olympics and guaranteeing the debt, which almost none of the council members nor the current Mayor will be around to watch the city suffer the consequences of lack of services and potential bankruptcy….
Terms Limits is an idea that needs to be re-thought…
Just my opinion…..