Talking Term Limits
October 14th, 2008
If you happen to be downtown or in Williamsburg or in Kew Gardens this afternoon you’ll hear more than just residents talking about term limits — you’ll hear term limits banter blasted from several Working Families Party trucks.
The party, which has mounted an anti-term limits extension campaign and is gathering signatures to boost their counter-offensive, is targeting undecided council members by sending sound trucks onto their districts’ streets.
Today, council members Alan Gerson, David Yassky and Melinda Katz are the targets.
Elsewhere, mayoral candidate Rep. Anthony Weiner is reportedly encouraging residents to stand up and speak out at the first hearing on term limits scheduled for 1 p.m. Thursday. Since officials said they would stay as long as necessary for everyone to be heard, some groups are pushing for an all-nighter.
This Web site, Let NYC Vote!, is hosting an online sign up drive. Testimony slots available are anytime from 1 p.m. — the start of the hearing — to 10 a.m. the next morning. The second hearing is slated to begin at 10 a.m. Friday.
Talk about a marathon of testimony.
Tonight, Citizens Union, the sister organization to Gotham Gazette’s publisher, will be hosting a public forum and panel discussion on the topic. Citizens Union opposes the extention of term limits legislatively and put out a harshly worded press release when Council Speaker Christine Quinn — as expected — announced her support of the mayor’s bill on Sunday.
The panelists are Columbia Law Professor Richard Briffault, Councilmember Lew Fidler, former Deputy Mayor Randy Mastro under the Giuliani administration and Esmeralda Simmons, executive director of the Center for Law and Social Justice at Medgar Evers College.
Tonight’s event will be the first public forum on term limits and the first measurement of public opinion.
By Courtney Gross on October 14, 2008, 1:00 pmIn category: Electoral Politics, Gotham City, Governing, Law, nextNY | 1 Comment »


October 14th, 2008 at 2:04 pm
People should also try to attend their local community board meetings and raise the term limits issue with their neighbors and the elected officials in attendance.
http://www.nyc.gov/html/cau/html/cb/directory.shtml