Notwithstanding the fact that the public twice voted in favor of term limits and a cabal by Mayor Michael Bloomberg and 21 term-limited City Council members who overruled the will of the people, Bloomberg’s hand-picked City Charter Revision Commission has now given the public another slap in the face.
Current incumbents will not be limited to two terms and, if Charter revisions, however deficient, are approved, they will not be fully put into effect until 2021. That means that for 11 more years the public will be stuck with inept officeholders whose self-interest exceeds that of the public’s.
The hack politics-as-usual perpetrated by a majority of the commission makes it clear that term limits, in what for all practical purposes is a one-party city, is necessary. It should also be noted that the commission refused to include in the changes the prohibiting of the use of eminent domain to take private property for the benefit of private real estate interests.
So what to do? Since a crumb is better than no bread at all, I shall vote for the changes, however deficient they may be, and hope that at some point in the future, when we are blessed with true representation, proper changes may be enacted. In the interim, no incumbent who takes advantage of the Charter changes shall receive my vote in any primary or general election (“Voters will weigh in on term limits in November,” TimesLedger Newspapers, Aug. 26-Sept. 1).
Benjamin M. Haber
Flushing
