County term limits: a bad (but probably inevitable)
idea
By DAVID ROSS
A group of union thugs unhappy with the Board
of Supervisors for keeping their pay in line the last few years
have gathered enough signatures to qualify a ballot initiative
for next June that would limit supervisors to two terms.
Of course, it wouldn’t limit our current supervisors-for-life
to two terms; it would limit them to two more terms.
The Service Employees International Union is to blame for this
atrocity. You think I’m being gratuitiously insulting
by calling SEIU members thugs? It’s easy to Google news
coverage of some of the recent TEA parties to find examples
of SEIU members getting up close and physical with demonstrators
opposing socialized medicine.
The fact that it’s a public employees union promoting
the idea is enough reason for me to vote against it, since public
employee unions and their grip on Sacramento are top among reasons
why our state government is in a death spiral. Now they want
San Diego County to jump into space. No thanks!
It no doubt irritates the SEIU that our county government isn’t
bound hand and foot to the unions the way that Sacramento is.
San Diego County is run pretty efficiently. Too efficiently
to suit the unions.
This will make my populist friends unhappy with me, but I will
say it: term limits are a BAD idea—one of those ideas
that pop up frequently as something that will reform politics,
when it does nothing of the sort. It doesn’t bring good
people into office. It doesn’t prevent incompetent fools
from being elected. All it does is prevent you from keeping
someone competent and popular in office.
When term limits were voted in for California it was supposed
to bring better government to Sacramento. How is that working
out for you? The same seats stay in the same party year after
year. Party hacks are replaced more rapidly with inexperienced
party hacks, who are often the puppets of their more experienced
staff members.
If you want to reform politics, both local and state, do something
about the ridiculous gerrymandering that prevents districts
from being competitive.
Of course, I realize that I’m howling into the wind on
this one. Voters rarely vote down term limits once the idea
makes it to the ballot.
But I will go down fighting!
* * *
But wait! As long as we’re talking about reforming government,
let’s have a discussion in this paper of how to make elections
and elected officials work better!
I’m going to write some editorials about ways to make
government work better, like campaign financing reform (my idea
is nothing like what we have now!), and our sometime columnist
Patsy Fritz will write some, and anyone else who has an interesting
idea can write one. Send them in! Let’s have a mini-constitutional
convention in The Roadrunner.
