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Clash of the Charter Titans
May 18th, 2010

Last night the Charter Revision Commission invited the heads of the past charter commissions to share their wisdom and expertise. It all began as one would expect with everyone expressing admiration of and gratitude to their predecessors and/or successors. But then things turned unexpectedly feisty as the former chairs clashed over issues the current commission will undoubtedly consider: nonpartisan elections and term limits.

The term limits debate pitted Lt Gov. Richard Ravitch, chair of the first commission, against Frank Macchiarola. In 2003, Macchiarola decided to put nonpartisan elections, a pet cause of the man who appointed him, Mayor Michael Bloomberg, on the ballot before the commission held hearings. The measure went down to defeat by a margin of more than two to one, despite the mayor’s deep pockets. But yesterday Macchiarola made it clear he had no regrets.

Describing himself as a member of the “Green Tea Party because I’m an environmentalist,” Macchiarola expressed his disdain for many aspects of our the city’s current election system, including public financing of campaigns, which he said “has built an industry of people … who help people get elected who would get elected without it. “He also derided elite newspapers and the Working Families Party, which he called the Workers Party and tarred as Bolshevik (when did you last hear that one?).

People , he said, are seething with anger over being kept out of the political process and dictated to by elites A system of nonpartisan elections, Macchiarola said, would ease that, “increase turnout and give more people the right to run.”

Ravitch conceded that “no one who is going through what I’m going through now in Albany can’t have difficulty maintaining one’s faith in the democratic process.” But, he continued, one doesn’t solve problems “in politics by taking politics out of the political process. … Politics is not a pejorative word.”

The two party system, he said, serves as “a stabilizing force in American politics” and allows people to run for office “who don’t necessarily have the wherewithal to get on the ballot themselves.” (And who might ne mean here?)

The term limits exhcnage after the jump.

The dust up over that came between former commission chairs Randy Mastro, who repeatedly — and unsuccessfully — went to court in an effort to stop the mayor’s successful effort to upend term limits in 2009, and Ester Fuchs, a former aide to and frequent vocal supporter of Bloomberg.

Mastro said is was “incumbent upon this commission to take up” term limits. Whether one agrees or disagree with limits, he said, “What happened last year in our city was an outrage … We don’t want to see that situation repeat itself.”

Fuchs quickly jumped in saying that the legislature — in this case, the City Council — has the right to overturn something decided by ballot initiative. “If we compare ourselves to state in which ballot initiatives are rampant, ” he said, “we can see there are enormous problems.”

Mastro really provoked Fuchs, though, when he ventured that the number of minority members on the City Council had increased since the establishment of term limits, implying that the two were linked. “This is called bad social science,” she said, telling Mastro, “You don’t have the data.”

Another former chair, F.A.O. Schwarz Jr., then jumped into the fray, saying he had not always backed term limits but now though “for New York City having some term limits in a good idea. He proposed keeping it to three terms for council members since the two-term limit “weakened City Council.”

As to whether the council could be barred from overturning the will of the people, Schwartz said that might make sense. After all, he said, “this is a self-dealing issue where the mayor and council can vote in their own self interest.”

By Gail Robinson on May 18, 2010, 3:00 pm
In category: City Hall, Electoral Politics, Gotham City, Governing | 2 Comments »

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2 Responses to “Clash of the Charter Titans”

  1. Larry Littlefield Says:
    May 19th, 2010 at 9:03 am

    What matters isn’t whether the limit in term limits is two or three. What matters is whether the City Council and Mayor have the right to unlaterally eliminate term limits, or extend them to ten terms.

  2. nord Says:
    May 19th, 2010 at 3:16 pm

    I would agree with former Mayor Ed Koch who said that 3 terms is about right. One to see if you are any good, reelected to get some actual work done and the third term so people won’t bail on you in the second when you do your good work. Two terms is too little.

    The idea that a deep-pocket Mayor can bypass the democratic will (at will) is abhorrent.

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