By Dan Murphy
WESTCHESTER, NY — Should our local, elected officials be subject to term limits? While no members of Congress or the New York State Legislature are subject to term limits, residents in Yonkers and the Town of North Castle are discussing, or re-discussing, the issue of term limits for their councilmembers and mayor and town supervisor.
In the Town of North Castle, three residents are seeking to put up for referendum a term limits proposal that would limit the terms of council members to two four-year terms, and for the town supervisor, for two two-year terms.
Anthony Futia, former North Castle Republican Chairperson Rosemary Bellantoni, and Susan Coppola are all listed on a suit filed in state Supreme Court seeking to force the town to hold a referendum this year. The Article 78 proceeding was filed after the three residents claimed that the town did not comply with a petition filed late last year to hold a term limits referendum.
Members of the Town Board, Town Clerk Alison Simon and Town Attorney Roland Baroni are named in the suit, which argues that the town improperly accepted the petition to place the term limits proposition on the ballot last November.
Because Baroni is the town attorney, the town has retained outside counsel to answer the petitioners’ claims. Baroni has argued that any passage of term limits must come from a vote of the Town Board and not by referendum, citing Section 81 of the consolidated laws.
The term limits supporters attorney, Lewis Oliver, disagrees with Baroni’s interpretation of the law. “We definitely disagree with that analysis,” he said. “The NYS Court of Appeals has ruled and disagrees with the town’s inaction in this matter. The Article 78 requests that the court issue an injunction to force the town to place the petition for term limits that residents collected on the ballot, either in November or in a special election.
“We believe that this a proper procedure and that members of the public should have the right to determine term limits in their locality. The petition had more than twice the number of signatures and nobody in town government has disputed the number of signatures.”
Futia said the petition “is not personal,” and that he has been calling for term limits for all elected officials for some time.”
In the City of Yonkers, term limits have been in place for more than 25 years, and restricts the number of terms that councilmembers and the mayor can serve to two four-year terms. Recently, there have been rumors of a possible attempt to overturn term limits.
The voters of Yonkers have already made two pubic votes on term limits; the first to set up the law, and a second attempt to overturn term limits failed. The legal analysis in Yonkers is that there are two ways to overturn term limits – one by a referendum, and one by a simple majority council vote.
Yonkers Mayor Mike Spano has two more years remaining on his second term, and would require a change to term limits in order to run for a third term. While Spano has made no public comments on whether he would be interested in a third term, rumors persist that someone is interested in doing so.
Two members of the Yonkers City Council, Majority Leader Michael Sabatino and Minority Leader Mike Breen, both commented recently that while they have no desire to overturn term limits, or modify term limits to allow a third four-year term, if someone were interested in doing so, they should do it by a referendum and not by a council vote.
Calls for Assembly member, state senators and members of Congress to have term limits imposed on them have never materialized and would require amendments to the State and U.S. Constitutions.
