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Health & Fitness

Term Limits. Part 2 - When is a Limit Nearly Limitless?

Newly elected Councilman Adam Nick has been struggling to modernize the Council and to bring Lake Forest into the 21st Century.  He’s put transparency on the front page and his own use of electronic devices has been the model for the Council to go paperless, saving the City thousands of dollars and keeping dozens of trees alive, which seems appropriate for a city with “forest” in our name. He also influenced our “PCN” process, as noted from a recent Planning Commission meeting, and now he’s turned his attention to the term limit issue, which comes before the Council this Tuesday night.

BACKGROUND

Nick, like our other recently elected Council members, campaigned on term limits, so the only surprise is that it took 6 months for the topic to appear. See my previous article for a discussion of the history.

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That’s the good news.

The bad news is that the Council is proposing a term limits ordinance that is practically limitless. Their proposal – every 12 years a council member has to take off for 2 years before he/she can resume their political career for 12 years more years. IOW, a council member would be limited to serving 24 out of the next 26 years. Not what you were thinking about when you heard the words “term limits”?

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WHY TERM LIMITS?

There is considerable literature about the need for change. God himself, needed to rest when he made the world (Genesis 2:2-3), and this was the basis for the “sabbatical” tradition that exists even today in Universities.

Advocates of term limits (and that’s just about everybody except incumbent politicians) believe they are good because…

·  They prevent incumbents from using the benefits of office to remain in power indefinitely (We have ample examples with the  “campaign contributions” mischief which have been going on in Lake Forest for decades. Click here for more info)

·  They make room for fresh candidates, and encourage participation (Look how many new initiatives have been started by our new Council members)

·  They stop politicians from making choices solely to prolong their career.

·  They reduce the advantage which can be gained by a representative’s seniority.

WHAT IS THE LIMIT OF TERM LIMITS?

Most cities that adopt term limits have two term limits and even the President of the United States has a two term limit.  Peter Herzog has served 20+ years as a council member, and even he recently said that no one should serve more than 8 years. In open session a few weeks ago, Adam Nick said that if he couldn’t accomplish what he wanted in 8 years he would quit in disgrace. So how did we get from 8 years maximum to 24 out of 26 years?

A GOOD GUIDELINE

The two term limit seems to work well for the President and for most cities that have term limits. If you believe this is too limiting, and might prevent worthy public servants from continuing to bestow their wisdom and good works upon us, you might want to consider adding a third term. Ideally, we might consider term limits that restrict a council member to no more than two consecutive terms and no more than 12 years total service.

This would allow someone to serve 12 consecutive years, or to serve 8 years, take 2 years off, and then come back for 4 more years. But it would prevent someone from making a lifelong career out of public office.

WHAT ELSE MIGHT WE CONSIDER?

Since we’re already considering going to the voters and changing the way we elect our City council, let’s do a thorough job and get down to the nitty gritty of what goes on at the Council. That’s the topic for tomorrow’s article.

 

PS – Because the City hasn’t set up any kind of system to gauge public opinion on topics of concern to citizens, showing up at the City Council meeting is really the only way to be heard. You can add your thoughts to these blogs, but some City Council members don’t read them.

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