{"id":242,"date":"2014-11-07T15:42:37","date_gmt":"2014-11-07T20:42:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/abfifer.com\/blog\/?p=242"},"modified":"2021-04-19T16:01:07","modified_gmt":"2021-04-19T20:01:07","slug":"lets-limit-term-limits","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/abfifer.com\/blog\/2014\/11\/lets-limit-term-limits\/","title":{"rendered":"Let’s Limit Term Limits"},"content":{"rendered":"

Voters in Grand Rapids approved a proposal <\/a>Tuesday that limits the terms of our elected city representatives. My fellow citizens have in effect restricted my voting rights. Neither of my two city commissioners, Ruth Kelly and Rosalynn Bliss, can run again; my right to vote for them has now been taken away from me. They have both been effective leaders, and now they cannot serve as city commissioners once their current terms expire. Ever. Term limits are un-democratic.<\/p>\n

We already have term limits: it\u2019s called \u201closing the election.\u201d Would that the term-limits proponents put as much effort into attracting and supporting new candidates as they did into passing term limits. But, proponents say, it\u2019s just too hard to mount a campaign against an incumbent, and government needs \u201cfresh faces\u201d from time to time.<\/p>\n

I understand that, but it doesn\u2019t seem to me the problem warrants a lifetime ban on public office. So allow me to propose a compromise: What if we require officials to \u201csit out\u201d a term after a certain number of years? After that, they\u2019re eligible to run again. In other words, let\u2019s limit term limits, so they don\u2019t forever prohibit a talented official from seeking office again.<\/p>\n

The amendment to the Grand Rapids city charter approved <\/a>by the (slim) majority this week states, \u201cNo person shall be eligible for election as City Commissioner if they have served as City Commissioner for two terms, and no person shall be eligible for election as Mayor if they have served as Mayor for two terms.\u201d What if we inserted, \u201cunless their second term was followed by a full unserved term\u201d [or words to that effect] ?<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s limit term limits, so they give newcomers a fighting chance but don\u2019t permanently ban \u201cthe good guys\/gals\u201d from public service.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Voters in Grand Rapids approved a proposal Tuesday that limits the terms of our elected city representatives. My fellow citizens have in effect restricted my voting rights. Neither of my two city commissioners, Ruth Kelly and Rosalynn Bliss, can run again; my right to vote for them has now been taken away from me. They […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-242","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abfifer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abfifer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abfifer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abfifer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abfifer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=242"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/abfifer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":247,"href":"https:\/\/abfifer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242\/revisions\/247"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abfifer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=242"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abfifer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=242"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abfifer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=242"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}