In a signal of the coming political fight over Mayor Bloomberg’s plan to seek another four years in office, two City Council members said on Saturday that they would introduce legislation that would allow voters rather than the City Council to decide whether to extend term limits.
City Council members Bill de Blasio and Letitia James, both Brooklyn Democrats, say they intend to introduce a bill on Tuesday calling for a citywide referendum to be held in the spring. The proposal by Mr. de Blasio and Ms. James would establish a commission to draft a change to the City Charter to allow for a third four-year term. As part of the process, the commission would hold hearings in each of the five boroughs before placing the proposed changes on the ballot in the spring.
The proposal will be submitted on the same day. For the 51-member Council, both proposals are politically risky. The Mayor’s bill would upend a law that voters approved in 1993 and again in 1996, leaving the lawmakers who side with him to answer to their constituents when they face their own re-elections.
Update
Billionaire Ron Lauder bankrolled the original push for term limits. He told the New York Times today that the permanent change to term limits proposed by the Mayor is not what he said early last week he would support. He says his support was strictly for a one-time extension of the limit. Reports in the Post and the Daily News say Lauder has been offered a deal. If he stays out of the issue for now, he will get a seat on a charter revision commission in 2010 that will consider the term limit issue again.
So the Mayor says let me get a third term and then you can change it for the next Mayor, so we could still say it could be a one-time extension, maybe. Also does the Mayor and City Council have to be joined together in a term limit issue?
Michael H. Drucker
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