Mayor White wants to reconsider term limits.
In a City Council meeting Wednesday, White said he is not advocating an end to the policy, but rather a commission that would study the possibility of changing or eliminating the rule. Voters would decide whether to establish the commission in a question on the November ballot, White said.
“I personally have always been one to favor term limits,” White said. “I didn’t get some vision from above about what would be the right number of terms, however. We have to ensure that our elected representatives have enough experience to hold the bureaucracy accountable.”
As the story notes, a bill that passed the House this spring would have put a proposition on the ballot that would have required a change to Houston’s term limits law if it received a majority of the votes, but it didn’t make it out of the Senate. This is nowhere near as ambitious as what former San Antonio Mayor Phil Hardberger did last year, when he got a referendum on that city’s even more stringent term limits law on the ballot, which then won passage in November, but it’s a step in the right direction. It’s also certain to kick up as much fuss from the usual suspects as a full-fledged amendment would have done. And sure enough:
The lead organizer of the 1991 ballot initiative that inaugurated the current system pounced on the mere suggestion of change.
“I think this is a waste of taxpayers’ time and money because the people have already spoken on term limits,” said Clymer Wright. More than 56 percent of voters approved the measure, which was placed on the ballot by petition. “If the politicians go against the people on term limits, the politicians always lose.”
Yes, the people spoke about it in 1991, and if the people decide they want to speak about it again in 2010, they can do that as well. Election results don’t last forever, they last till the next election. The Constitution can be amended if the people decide they want to do it, after all. So too can Houston’s term limits law be changed.
UPDATE: Campos reiterates what he said in the article. I think he’s right that the pro-term limits folks are more organized and motivated, and as there’s no one leading the anti side, it would be hard to pass even a study to revise them. But I think the electorate is a lot different now than it was in 1991, and as before term limits is basically an issue for conservative Republicans who think there are too many Democrats in office; I certainly remember how quickly they got dropped as a talking point in the 90s once the GOP took over. I don’t think it would take much to win the vote Mayor White is proposing, but it will take some skin in the game from folks who aren’t being term-limited out.
Why doesn’t Houston go for two, four-year terms as the limit? Good lord if it works for Obama, most of the Governors and dozens of other major cities it would seem logical for Houston.
As an outsider, it just always seems like Council Members in Houston and San Antonio are constantly in campaign mode (San Antone has a ridiculous two, two-year term limit). Something needs to change.
As an outsider, it just always seems like Council Members in Houston and San Antonio are constantly in campaign mode (San Antone has a ridiculous two, two-year term limit). Something needs to change.
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Regardless of the term, the last year in office is always spent campaigning for the next term in office. The real problem in Houston are the career “department heads” who of course answer to the real power in Houston which is the big boys with the big bucks. No matter who you elect, nothing changes. If the voters don’t elect who they back, no problem. The city is not really run by the mayor anyway.