Comptroller wants Mayor to decide on term limits

With the talk about extending term limits front and center during recent weeks, City Comptroller William C. Thompson, who is also a likely candidate for Mayor in 2009, is asking Mayor Michael Bloomberg to put all his cards on the table about the issue.
“I believe the time has come for the mayor to clearly, truthfully and directly let the people of New York City know whether he supports term limit extensions,” Thompson said in a statement. “And, if in fact he intends to support a measure, whether he plans to place it before voters or would instead sign legislation to allow it to move forward.”
During a school opening in Corona last week, Bloomberg was asked about term limits, and he responded that he always thought term limits were a good idea, but whether two or three terms were the best was debatable.
Currently, City Councilmembers along with the Mayor, Comptroller and Public Advocate can only serve two, four-year terms in office, and voters have twice rejected referendums to eliminate term limits for citywide offices.
Today, Queens has 14 City Councilmembers with 13 of them being term-limited out of office in 2009 - the only exception is Councilmember Thomas White, whose term limit does not expire until 2013.
However, seeing that their seats would be up in 2009, a number of sitting Queens Councilmembers began raising money more than two years ago for a possible citywide run in 2009.
During the most recent campaign finance filing in July, four current Queens City Councilmembers - Melinda Katz, David Weprin, John Liu and Eric Gioia - each reported raising upwards of $1.8 million for a 2009 run with only Katz and Weprin declaring what office they intended to run for. In addition, dozens of other candidates have expressed an intention to run for one of the expected open Council seats, but an extension of term limits could persuade a number of these candidates to drop their campaigns.
Meanwhile, Thompson believes that term limits should be three terms, but that does not mean he thinks the City Council and the Mayor should overturn the law legislatively.
“I, and so many others who hold office in our city today, have personally benefited from term limits,” Thompson said. “Yet, it is simply not right to ignore the will of the voters and pass legislation that relegates their opinion - and their rights - to second-class status.”
See Editorial on page 21