New Law Aims To Extend City Council's Term Limits

NEW YORK, NY — A Brooklyn city councilman announced plans Monday to introduce a bill that could give many of his colleagues more time in office. Councilman Jumaane Williams of Flatbush, one of eight candidates to be the Council's next speaker, has drafted legislation that would extend the term limit for Council members to three four-year terms from the current two terms.

If the Council approves it, the bill would send the issue to voters in a referendum that would be the fourth such vote on the issue in 25 years. The proposal wouldn't affect the two-term limit for mayor, comptroller and public advocate, according to the New York Daily News.

Williams, a Democrat from Flatbush, says a third term would give lawmakers more experience to better serve their constituents and let them see long-term projects through to their finish.

"I can personally testify that Members need at least three potential terms to truly be successful in representing their constituencies," Williams, who was just re-elected to his third term, wrote in a document outlining his priorities for the speaker's job. "Your first term is really an exercise in learning on the job the nuances of legislative, constituent and budgetary work, as well as finding the right team to assist you."

Williams isn't alone in the push for more generous term limits. The idea has support from the other seven Democrats running for speaker, according to the New York Daily News: Ydanis Rodriguez, Mark Levine, Jimmy Van Bramer, Ritchie Torres, Donovan Richards, Robert Cornegy and Corey Johnson.

Voters have favored the two-term limit over the last two decades despite the Council's effort to change it. Voters first imposed term limits in 1993, then rejected a Council plan to extend them three years later.

The Council, then led by Speaker Christine Quinn, extended the limit to three terms in 2008, in time for then-Mayor Michael Bloomberg to seek a third term. But voters undid the move in a 2010 referendum.

Opponents of an extension argue voters have already said three times that they don't want Council members sticking around for 12 years. "Who in their right mind couldn’t have gotten the message by now?" the Daily News editorial board wrote Monday.

But Williams says it's time to revisit the question.

"I would counter that even good ideas need tweaking some time(s) because they have unintended consequences," he wrote in his platform.

The term limit extension is part of a broader policy plan Williams would pursue if the Council elects him to replace Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito, who is term-limited out of office this year.

Williams would also aim strengthen the Council's oversight powers, give individual lawmakers more freedom to draft bills and expand participatory budgeting, a process in which constituents vote on how members spend discretionary money for capital projects.

The Council will elect a new speaker when the next legislative session starts in January.

(Lead image: City Councilman Jumaane Williams (D-Brooklyn) speaks at a news conference in May 2016. Photo by Mark Sagliocco/Getty Images)