First-term Council Members to Meet for Term Limits Discussion
“Freshman caucus” may signal growing rift within Council
First-term members of the City Council plan to meet behind closed doors Friday morning to discuss legislation that would permanently revise the city’s term limits law, according to several people briefed on the matter.The meeting, billed as a “freshman caucus,” is planned as a forum for first-term members to grapple with the political and legislative implications of the bill, which would extend from two to three the number of terms the city’s elected leaders can serve. Aides to Council Speaker Christine Quinn will be on hand to answer questions about the legislation as well.
Council Member Letitia James, a vocal opponent of extending term limits through legislation, said she and her first-term colleagues would use the forum to discuss how the bill “impacts us as freshman, how it applies to us, and if we’re protected.”
People briefed on the details of the meeting admitted that a “freshman caucus” was unusual, and said it signaled a growing rift between the 14 first-term members of the Council and their 34 term-limited colleagues (three members, Anthony Como, Mathieu Eugene and Vincent Ignizio have joined the Council in special elections since 2005).
First-term members are concerned that a truce brokered between Mayor Michael Bloomberg and billionaire cosmetics heir Ronald Lauder could undo the term limit extension before the 2013 election, preventing the council's freshman class from ever achieving seniority in the body.
In exchange for his support, Bloomberg promised Lauder a seat on a Charter Revision Commission in 2010, which Lauder has said he would use to reinstate the two-term limit, effectively making the changes temporary.
Council Member Vincent Gentile, a first-term member who favors a public referendum, said the idea of a freshman caucus originated at Tuesday’s stated meeting of the Council, during which discussion of the bill was steered mostly by second-term members.
Asked if he hoped to change the minds of those first-term members who remain undecided, Gentile said that more people are opposed than may have said so.
“I’m not sure minds have to be changed. They may have said publicly one thing, but I think some of the minds have been made up,” he said.
One of those minds may belong to Quinn, who has yet to take a position publicly.
Maria Alavarado, a spokesperson for Quinn, said in a statement: “The Speaker's office has told Council members that they are available to answer questions about the legislation and process.”
Gentile said he hoped the caucus would help solidify first-term members as a bloc in opposition to the bill. At the very least, he said, it would help shift the debate.
“Well," he said, "it will certainly get people to sit up and take notice.”
sgentile@cityhallnews.com
Additional reporting by Andrew J. Hawkins
