“The Argument” in yesterday’s Globe West featured City Councilor Ted Hess-Mahan and Republican City Committee chair Tom Mountain debating the whether or not the Newton Charter Commission should impose term limits on mayor and city council.
Should there be term limits for Newton’s mayor and city council?
by village14 | Sep 19, 2016 | Charter Commission | 12 comments
I’m not big on term limits, especially for mayor. I think that would be a huge mistake. But the topic is certainly worthy of debate. I am very surprised however that the Charter Commission does not appear to have considered an impeachment or recall provision. It’s the voters who put elected officials in office, and those voters should have the right to remove someone for wrongdoing. The lack of a recall provision is a glaring omission from our current Charter. I’m hoping the Charter Commissioners recognize that and correct it.
I love term limits. Love.
The Charter Commission is scheduled to review Article 10 (Free Petition; Initiative; Referendum)on November 16th. This is the appropriate place in a charter for procedures that enable voters’ to petition the local government. The leaders of this article (Brooke Lipsitt and I) began working on it this summer with our consultants, the Collins Center.
The tentative schedule for upcoming meetings can be found on the Charter Commission home page.
Just to piggyback on Jane’s comment, which I think was in response to Mike’s comment, I would expect recall to be discussed as part of the discussion of Article 10.
Mike, I can promise you this much: I plan on bringing up recall. It will be discussed. I don’t know how we will proceed from there, but you will have an opportunity to be heard.
@Jane and Bryan– Thank you both for the update.
I am not sure recall is a replacement for term limits. However, term limits are tricky. On the one hand they help to increase turnover and reduce single view/person multi-year rule. On the other hand you loose experience and institutional memory if set too low, or set without staggered terms. Recalls are very hard and the incumbent still benefits because they are so hard. The incumbent would have had to do something extreme to get to a point a recall would work. So because of that I think term limits are a stronger way to increase view points. I support term limits, maybe a limit of 8 years on a staggered term? Heck put a recall process in there too.
John – Term limits and recall would be in completely different articles and address separate issues. Too late in the evening to say more, but maybe tomorrow.
Recalls and term limits address two very different issues. The people should always have a mechanism to remove someone they no longer have confidence in representing them. Always. And they should never have to wait an undue length of time. There needs to be a formal process in place to accomplish this. It is the single most glaring omission from the current charter.
Regarding term limits, it is not so clear. Personally, I think , on average, we would be better served by renewal, and new ideas and perspectives with limits.
What I have not heard, but think should also be added, is an attendance policy which requires automatic resignation if not met. If you can’t show up for the job, you deserve to be replaced, no matter how nice you might be. I think a record of greater than 75% attendance rate is not an unreasonable expectation.
I’ve never been a fan of term limits for legislative office although I’m somewhat less committed when it comes to executive positions whether we are talking about President of the United States, anyone of the 50 governors and, of course, Mayor of Newton. In terms of legislative bodies, I see no reason to term limit any incumbent as long as they are mentally fit and discharging their responsibilities effectively. You may not have liked either Ted Kennedy or Barney Frank, but they were effective in promoting their agendas and at reaching across the aisle to forge coalitions on a number of critical pieces of legislation. They were seasoned and effective in large measure because of the decades they spent in public office. They took the time to learn how government functions and what it can and cannot do effectively.
The only way I know to make legislative bodies more honest and accountable is to get big money and big donations out of elections. And yes, you can buy a term limited legislator off by promising him or her a big salary with a corporate donor or lobbyist when his assignment is finished. Bernie Sanders showed convincingly that an effective campaign can be waged with small donations, but it’s not clear he could have expanded this sufficiently in a general election to compete with the vast sums being poured into this current campaign, most by anonymous donors. Forget term limits. Get all but small donations out of all elections.
I am not convinced that term limits on city councilors make sense, particularly two year terms.
@Bryan and Jane: Thank you for the update re: Recall. Not only could Newton benefit from such a provision, but there’s no excuse to not have one. Period.
As a result of your thorough municipal research, were you able to determine what percentage of cities/towns have a recall provision? Similarly, do the CC consultants have a position and/or further information about this?
We are in the process of collecting data on recall in other communities. The Collins Center makes recommendations and data, but they do not hold a position on any issue.