Dromm: Let the Voters Decide

Statement by Council Candidate Daniel Dromm on Term Limit Extension Bills

Daniel Dromm, a candidate for New York City Council, 25th District seat (Queens) issued the following statement today in response to two bills regarding the extension of term limits for elective officials.

Twice in the last fifteen years, the people of New York City have voted to limit elective officials to two full terms in office. Term limits help keep elected officials accountable to the public and defend against the abuses of unlimited tenure. The proposals now before the City Council offer a stark choice for the future of the political system our great city: reaffirm the will of the people and the basic principles of democracy and good governance, by forming a charter review commission and possibly holding a special election on term limits in the spring; or cynically toss democracy aside for personal political ambition by changing term limits legislatively.

The people of New York City benefit when our elections are more competitive and the nearly insurmountable advantage of incumbency is leveled. That is why I support term limits, and most of the people currently serving on the council owe their positions to the fact that a majority of New Yorkers feel that way, too. When the question of extending term limits to three terms was brought to the voters in 1996, they rejected it. To serve your community for eight years as a City Councilmember is not a right, but a tremendous honor. I don't understand why some of our elected officials would be unsatisfied with that, especially when they have benefited from it themselves. Any attempt to do an end run around the will of the voters by legislative maneuvering will undermine our democracy.

Some are saying that we can't afford to lose experienced leaders like Mayor Bloomberg because of the country's financial troubles. This city has not faced a more dire and immediate crisis than we did in the months and years after September 11, 2001. The election that year was the first time term limits went into effect. We had an unprecedented turnover of leadership in the city that year, from the Mayor to the Borough Presidents and two-thirds of the City Council. We weathered it just fine, and the voters are perfectly well qualified to decide whether the difficult times ahead warrant a change in term limits. I encourage Councilmember Helen Sears to do the right thing and stand against a legislative change to term limits and, if she must support either bill, to vote for creating a charter review commission to look at the issue and offer it up to the voters to decide.