The Gifford Miller Rule

The City Council is apparently moving forward on plans to extend term limits, which voters long ago and far away once approved. The plan — dubbed the Gifford Miller Rule — is designed to prevent council members from having to run for higher office before their time. Good government groups are dubious:

Twelve years after New York City voters adopted term limits for many of their local officials, the City Council is poised to allow its members to serve one more term, – without asking voters how they feel about changing the term limits law.

A majority of the Council supports a change that would allow the members to serve another four-year term in office, instead of the current limit of two terms. Six of the seven members vying to become the next Council speaker said last week that they favor making the change through legislation rather than putting it before voters, and the seventh did not rule out such a step.

Term limits were imposed after a 1993 citywide referendum, and reaffirmed by voters in 1996 when the Council similarly sought to allow a third term. In doing so, the voters largely swept aside political tradition and party loyalties to impose new limits on how long the mayor, other citywide elected officials, and council members could serve.

But now, council members, who are considering increasing term limits for themselves but not the mayor or other officials, say the two-term limit has left the Council bereft of experienced leadership and undermined its ability to act as a check on the mayor. They also say such matters should not be decided by the voters, claiming that the referendum process has often been corrupted by moneyed special interests.

To be fair to Mr. Miller, who received just under 10 percent of the vote in the Democratic primary for Mayor, said that no changes to the law will be made in the remaining month of his Speakership.