Term Limits Extension on SA Ballot

October 10, 2008 · At a recent National Night Out block party, neighbors in Monticello Park gathered to meet one another, share a meal and talk about local issues.

The conversations touched on crime, politics and what to do about city council’s term limits.

Some residents like Carla Rodriguez have no doubt about how they’ll vote on the issue.

“I’m tired of short term goals – we need more long term goals,” she said. Rodriguez said more time in office would make city hall more stable.

“As far as any type of continuity – I feel as far as someone gets a program started – they really need to see it finalized and it cant be done in 2 to 4 years.”

Robbie Flores is at the Night Out and getting to know his neighbors. He said he is going to vote against the plan to extend the term limits.

“To me I would say – leave it as is – I don’t see any reason to change it. I can understand some of the reasoning to wanting to extend it, but then I can see some of the reasoning why not to extend it,” he said.

Flores said he doesn’t accept the argument that city council members should be allowed to finish their projects, because there are always going to be projects and many take years and years to finish.

Bianca Maldonado is a former president of the Monticello Park Neighborhood Association. She’s frustrated by the current 2 two-year terms at city hall for council members and the mayor.

“It seems like there is a revolving door at city council,” she said.

Maldonado said the neighborhood association, which is in District 7, has seen three different council members in the last six years. She said the neighborhood is paying the price for so many disruptions at city hall.

“We’ve seen a lot of things neglected in the inner city. We’ve seen our roads, streets and maintenance has gone neglected. There’s just no continuity," Maldonado said.

Monticello Park is also the neighborhood for former Mayor Ed Garza, and he’s here tonight. Garza has heard the term limit debate before.

He spearheaded an attempt to extend the term limits in 2004 to three three-year terms. The voters turned that down by a two to one margin.

Garza said it was rejected because of the city council pay increase proposal that was also on the ballot.

But Garza says the present Mayor, Phil Hardberger, has put together a way to relax term limits that could be easier for voters to accept.

“The proposal on the ballot is fair. It gives the voters credit in terms of their ability to distinguish good from bad elected officials and still keep the limit at a reasonable term which is 8 years,” Garza said.

John Clayton Thomas is a professor of public administration at Georgia State University. He said many cities like San Antonio are reexamining their term limits.

Thomas said term limits were popular in the early 1990’s, but since then popular support has weakened.

“It’s the idea that we want amateurs in office – we don’t want professional politicians – and it’s often associated with small government ideas,” he said.

Thomas said there’s no link between having term limits and the quality of city government. But he said term limits do weaken city council and bolster the unelected bureaucracy of the city manager and staff.

“They are likely to gain authority, if you are dealing with people who are less expert with less political ability to figure out what to do on issues as a city manager or administrator you are going to gain in influence,” Thomas said.

Term limits first came to San Antonio in 1991 when the Homeowner Taxpayers Association backed a local referendum which won voter approval.

Recently the Homeowners Taxpayers Association’s president Bob Martin gave a press conference in front of city hall to remind voters why he doesn’t want the restrictions relaxed.

“Strict term limits provide a lot of benefits to the citizens of San Antonio. It insures more competitive elections by reducing the influence of special interests.  It offers more citizens a great opportunity to serve. It brings real world experience to our city government.  And also more importantly it reduces legal and illegal graph that long time political relationships encourage,” he said.

Martin said that under the proposed changes San Antonio could return to era when the city was dominated by well known career politicians.

“I think our problem is with going back to career politicians. Should this measure pass a politician can stay in office for up 16 years – 8 years on council and again 8 years as mayor. We’re certainly concerned about the damage that a 16 year politician can do,” Martin said.

While Martin and the Homeowners Taxpayers Association have momentum on their side the effort to relax term limits is being driven by some of the most influential people in San Antonio – including Billionaire BJ “Red” McCombs who is the co-chair of the “On your terms” campaign.

“This is really essential for our great city – for our children – for our grand children.”

At a press conference McCombs said term limits hamper the city and are a destabilizing force in local government, adding “We’ve had 5 mayors and 58 city council members since 1991.”

McCombs is backed by organizations like the COPS/Metro Alliance and other grass roots groups.

“Artificially set term limits tie the hands of voters,” said Paul Martinez of COPS/Metro. He says voters will still be able to vote out bad politicians.

“There are some who will try to use fear tactics to fight this proposition, but make no mistake an organized constituency will still be able to remove people from office who do not serve the best interest of their constituency,” said Martinez.

However Homeowner Taxpayer Association member Rubin Espronceda says once a politician gets elected they are hard to get rid of.

“They’re going to stay there on and on. They’re not going to go away. They’re not going to go away.”

Early voting begins October 20 through the 31. Election day is November 4.