Yea that's me calling for a new movement to close the loophole on the new two-term limits for city incumbents. You can find some of the details from this article by Chris Bragg at City Hall News, but the main point is that although the Charter Commission I served on gave the public the option of going back to two-terms for city elected officials, we exempted incumbents from this change if they are not already in their third term. I strongly objected to this provision, and wrote a minority report stating that position. That is why I believe that in order to finish the job we started we should give the voters the chance to decide whether they want to have the two-term law apply to incumbents as well. This can be done either by another charter commission or by public referendum. Right now the most likely route is a public referendum that would require thousands of signatures. Would you sign it?
I'll sign it in a heartbeat. Keep up the good fight Tony.
ReplyDeleteThere should be term limits on the state level as well. If ever there was a group that needed changing it's that lot up in Albany!
ReplyDeleteIf you are going to have term limits (which is what the voters insisted on THREE TIMES now), it makes no sense at all to carve out an exception for certain incumbents. So Mr. Cassino is right ... we need to finish the job that the Charter Panel started ... We must limit the grandfathered incumbents to the same two-term limit as everyone else in NYC elected office.
ReplyDeleteCan The Honorable Commissioner Anthony P. Cassino tell us how many incumbents we're talking about here? Is it only a few legislators enjoying this special exemption or is it a large chunk of the City Council?
ReplyDeleteThe grandfathered incumbents are a real witches' brew of self-serving losers.
ReplyDeleteAnon at 11:20--It includes 60 percent of the members of the city council, 2 borough presidents, the public advocate and the comptroller.
ReplyDeleteSIXTY PERCENT of the City Council! Two BOROUGH PRESIDENTS! The PUBLIC ADVOCATE! And the COMPTROLLER!
ReplyDeleteIf any of these politicians oppose the Cassino Plan, they are just being selfish and obnoxious.
Heh. If your club is in charge of gathering the petitions, this has no chance of getting on the ballot. Just ask Linares and Levine...
ReplyDeleteSo the exempted incumbents will oppose Cassino's proposal? I'm shocked, shocked!
ReplyDeleteHonorable? You have to have been elected to something to use that title. Not the case for Tony, not by a mile...
ReplyDeleteI think you're on to something here, and I think that it will be popular enough to actually work. So I can't imagine that the crew of elected officials targeted by this proposal will be at all happy when the movement you are starting gathers steam.
ReplyDeleteLevine is a loser. If he had any cajones, he could have rallied to beat Espilliat. He's spineless.
ReplyDeleteHey Anonymous November 10, 2010 10:06 PM:
ReplyDeleteThe term "The Honorable" is not just used for presidents, cabinet members, U.S. ambassadors, governors, mayors, judges, and legislators. It is also used for NYC commissioners (for example, The Honorable Janette Sadik-Khan, NYC Transportation Commissioner), and that includes the 15 members of the 2010 Charter Revision Commission (of which Anthony P. Cassino is one).
Thanks Commissioner Cassino. That article is very informative.
ReplyDeleteI heard that in the Democratic primary, Adriano Espaillat only won Riverdale by 51 votes! FIFTY-ONE VOTES!
ReplyDeleteyes, anan @ 11/11 11:15am but everywhere else Levine got blown out. He's too "riverdalian" for the rest of the bronx. Espilliat is not a saint by any means, all I am saying is that Levine couldn't rally the whole district. It doesn't matter anyway, the ones with the big money in Riverdale are going to buy whatever legislation they need anyway. Why not build a Great Wall along Irwin Ave. and keep everyone down in Kingsbridge out? That's what the President of the Fieldston Homeowner's Association wants anyway.
ReplyDeleteLet the majority rule.
ReplyDeleteI'm all for term limits. It's very good for our democracy to get fresh people into elective office -- especially here in the Bronx, where politics is dominated by an insincere group of stale leeches.
ReplyDeleteSo what's the next step in this campaign?