QUEENS COUNCILMEMBER TONY AVELLA IS FIRST LEGISLATOR TO SPEAK AGAINST COUNCIL PLAN TO EXTEND THEIR TERMS IN DEFIANCE OF TWO PUBLIC REFERENDA

QUEENS COUNCILMEMBER TONY AVELLA
IS FIRST LEGISLATOR TO SPEAK AGAINST
COUNCIL PLAN TO EXTEND THEIR TERMS
IN DEFIANCE OF TWO PUBLIC REFERENDA


By Henry J. Stern
December 1, 2005

Queens Councilmember Tony Avella today became the first elected official to break ranks on the Council leaders' plan to extend their own terms of office in defiance of two public referenda.

In a "Dear Colleague" to the fifty other members, Avella wrote:

"Perhaps I am naive - perhaps I have a very different view of public service, but I find the thought of ignoring the wishes of the citizens of this city by plotting to overturn term limits offensive.

"Twice the voters have indicated their support for two four-year terms for Councilmembers. Their wishes could not have been clearer.

"I have always felt that an elected official should set an example. The worst possible self-interested action the City Council could take is to extend our own jobs by extending term limits."

Councilmember Avella is a Democrat, first elected in 2001. He won a second two year term after redistricting in 2003 and was re-elected in 2005 for a four-year term. He represents the 19th Council District, located in northeast Queens. The district is considered Democratic but moderate; it was carried by Mayor Giuliani and Mayor Bloomberg. The communities it covers include Bayside, College Point, Auburndale, Beechhurst, Whitestone, Bay Terrace, Robinwood and parts of Flushing, Douglaston and Little Neck.

Councilman Avella's decision is welcome news to those who have viewed with disdain the Council's attempt to over-rule the referenda on term limits held in 1993 and 1996. Six of the seven candidates for Speaker have embraced the plan publicly (the seventh is said to support it privately) as a way of ingratiating themselves with their colleagues.

The matter will probably be brought up when the new Council meets in January. Mayor Bloomberg has promised to veto any extension of terms without a referendum. If he does, it will be necessary for the proponents to secure 34 votes from the 51 Councilmembers to over-ride the veto. If that happens, the issue will go the courts, and eventually the Court of Appeals to decide whether, in these circumstances, the Council has the power to over-rule the people in its own interest.

(Michael Goodwin wrote on this issue Nov. 27 in his column in the Daily News: POLS' UNLIMITED GALL. We elaborated on the subject in a brief item Nov. 28: DIDN'T THEIR MOTHERS TEACH THEM ABOUT SHAME?)


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Henry J. Stern
starquest@nycivic.org
New York Civic
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