Two Consecutive Terms are Good Enough for PBC Cities
Posted by iris on October 19, 2017 · 3 Comments
Not all of the municipalities in Palm Beach County have Term Limits – but most of the larger ones do. See the chart below. Note that none of these allow for more than TWO consecutive terms, except for WPB where the Mayor is limited to 2 consecutive 4 year terms, and the Council to 4 consecutive 2 year terms. All have more meetings and workshops per month than does our Council – and their council and/or commissions have comparable or more complex jobs (due to the population of their cities) than does our council, and are all part-time positions. Most are silent but some specify whether a term-limited member can run again.
Click on the image for link to PDF version with links to city charters, and League of Cities pages.
Other cities that are similar or larger without term limits, but have term and election descriptions:
- Jupiter – 3 year terms, Majority Wins, Run-off required
- Riviera Beach – 3 year terms, Majority Wins Run-off required
I’m questioning the data that the Charter Team used to arrive at their conclusions
Of the 29 Florida Cities equal or larger in population than PBG with term limits in their Charters only 38% or 11 use plurality voting. 55 Florida Cities are equal or larger in population than PBG if you add those in a plurality analysis you have 20 or 36% that use plurality voting schemes.
Using the same data sample only 31% or 9 allow Term limited elected officials to serve another term. The average number of terms allowed in the Florida Cities with Term limits of the same sample is; 2.24 terms.
Using the 55 City sample 48% allow their City Manager to live outside the City. After IRMA does anyone really want our $225K manager to be a telecommuter?
If anyone wants a copy of my spreadsheet I will be happy to forward if you fire me an email with your telephone # to parksdavidl@gmail.com
http://files.ctctcdn.com/aace95d1401/9033e239-9ea4-46f7-9bb7-134e3ef96cad.pdf
See page 5 for an article about the PBG fiasco
If you like bad government you love term limits. As a former council member who will never run for council again whether it is legal for me to or not, I have a unique perspective on this issue. First I don’t want 5 inexperienced council members at one time. That is what we will have continuously with these idiotically short term limits. When looking for any professional I don’t look for the person with the least amount of experience and credentials. If I do find a qualified individual new to the profession, I want that person to be in partnership with experienced individuals to learn from them. That is the way the council ran without term limits. When I first joined the council, I could learn from the four more seasoned members. That can’t happen now.
American government works because of checks and balances.. In the City of Palm Beach Gardens we support two branches of government and the county and state support the third. The courts of course are the courts. The City Council is the legislative branch and the City Administration (City Manager) is the executive branch. Term limits have weaken the legislative branch. Now the executive branch has grow in power. Council members rely on the City Staff for information and don’t have institutional knowledge. Therefore, the check against the executive branch of the city has been weaken or removed.
Term limits are about the biggest attack on Democracy there is. If a council member is doing a good job, say Carl Woods for instance. Term limits keep me from voting for Carl Woods if he wants to run for a third term. They also limit Carl’s freedom to run for office if he so desires. I can’t think of anything less democratic than keeping we from voting for who I want.
Term limit proponents in Palm Beach Gardens (mostly people who have lost council races) claim that we need term limits because incumbents can’t be beat. Don’t believe it. That is totally false. I beat a two term incumbent that out raise me in money 12 to 1. Good candidates can get elected. I can give you 3 examples right of the top of my head in the well run City of Palm Beach Gardens.
Term limits have been bad for the county, state and municipalities that have adopted them. I won’t name names but most of you know that term limits have allowed a preponderance of bad people into government. Since term limits were enacted for the state the state legislature has come up with crazier and crazier stuff every year. They are all jockeying for leadership positions because they don’t have time to be patient.
Finally, PBG is a city of 50,000 people. Since its two and done forever, we are actually going to run out of qualified people that want to run. Not everybody wants to live in a fish bowl where they are criticized consistently and have to live to a higher standard that the rest of society. Not everyone wants to make the financial sacrifice that being an elected official brings. Eventually, the only people running for council will be bad people with bad agendas and we will have no choice. I don’t want to live here when that day happens. Fernandina Beach is lovely little town in my native north Florida. Housing prices are less and best of all they have a seasoned and experience council with no term limits.